Climate Conversations » Guest Blog: Solar Sister #3 Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.3

I went to town today to mail a few letters and walked past one of the gas stations with a crazy line.  Thank goodness I refilled my cooking gas tank last week (even though I had to go to 3 gas stations to find it). Even then the price had gone up 24% since I last filled it in April. Inflation is a big problem here. Everything from gas to eggs to flour to school fees has risen. And, given that the unemployment rate is somewhere around 40%, it's a pretty fair statement that incomes haven't risen in step. Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.3

After a long year our books for Africa project is finally fully funded! Between the three of us (me, Clare and Laken ) we had to raise almost $15,000 so it was no small feat. And it definitely could not have been done without you all so THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!! Some of you I know even donated twice and I really appreciate it. The kids are going to love the books, whenever they see mine they always ask for them. So more updates to come when the container arrives. Asante! Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.3

Pictures of Mulot where I have my Tuesday meeting.  Getting there means

1- get a micro machine vehicle to town

2- get on the matatu heading west

3- wait 20 minutes to an hour for it to fill

4- sit squished on said matatu for an hour since there are at least 5 passengers more than seats 5- wait for my translator to meet me (most of the women speak kalenjin)

6- walk 30 off the tarmac road interior to the compound in the picture 7- to get home, repeat in reverse! Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.3

Aha! You thought you wouldn't hear from me for awhile didn't you? Well here I am. In an effort to blog more I've decided to do smaller posts more frequently. So right now I'm on a matatu going to a women's meeting. It's hot as the devil and the meeting is about 2 hours away but they are one of my favorite groups. They've been saving about 8 months now and taking loans since October. They are still a little shaky on the particulars of loans. Like the fact that you have to pay interest every month. Yet, I'm glad they are learning now when the loans are small ($50 and less) than go to a bank and learn the hard way with thousands of dollars at stake. They are also coming up with a new business to do. Most of them are just middlewomen in the market place for low margin items like maize. We'll see what they come up with! Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.3

Ok so since it's been more than six months since I posted. I have no excuse. This last half a year has been some o the most fulfilling and also disheartening months in my service. I'll be sure to go back in time and fill you all in but for the short version since June I have: secured and managed an $8,000 order for beaded bracelets for Lord& Taylor to be made by various artisans in town, participated in Camp GLOW (Girls Leading our World), started an arts resource center/ food nutrition project with kids in my area, planted a garden, practiced baking bagels and pie from scratch and making donuts, kept up with my VSLA groups (one of which graduated and finished a cycle), fundraised for our Books for Africa project (we still need more money!),read a bunch of books, watched way too much TV, washed enough clothes by hand to know that I never want to wash clothes by hand again, applied for a greenhouse, and made a lot more friends. Sounds busy right? Well the main reason I stopped blogging was during the L&T order I was too busy and afterwards my work kind of went from 60 to 0 in 5 seconds. For instance, if I were going to write about what I did today it would go like this: Wake up, eat breakfast, lay on couch and watch TV, go to post office and get amazing Xmas package from my dad and stepmom (thanks guys!), lay back on couch and eat all the candy in the package, sweep my house and haul about 50L of water into my reserve bucket, admire my blooming garden and water it, chat with Brian when he arrives from Kisumu, go to the main house and say hi to the girls and my supervisor, watch a bit of a Nigerian movie, send off a project proposal, try to find graduate school scholarships, sit on the couch with Brian watching TV and eating ramen. Granted, this is a "slow" week because the country kind of shuts down between mid-December until school starts back up in January. But you get the idea. Many of the things that were novel to me in the first year have just become mundane. And the things that used to irritate me now just really really annoy me to high heaven. On the whole, life has been pretty good though. I feel I have at least two projects that will last beyond my service and even just one would make me happy. I've certainly had a lot of time for introspection and I feel really good about the way things are heading. Now starts the real downward slope. 7 months left in country, 4 of them a final push to solidify projects and 3 of them for transitions so that hopefully something I did here will stick after I'm gone. So, as I always say, I'll try to be better about the posting and if you have anything specific you want to know, let me know in the comments!

Fiiiirst, I know it's been awhile and that's pretty much how every blog post on here starts. But, I was studying for the LSAT very diligently (mmmhmmm) and took it last Tuesday :-) Scores won't be back until the end of the month but for now I'm so happy to have it over and done with and not have to plan my day around studying. And I'm going home in a week so super excited for that too.

But, what has been going on in the life of Megan lately? Pretty much the same old. After a full year in Kenya, I feel like I have some sort of a schedule. Tuesday and Thursdays I teach at the secondary and also hang out with the kids in my neighborhood and draw. Class is going much better. I feel like the kids understand me more and feel more comfortable telling me when they don't understand something. Their scores are improving, thank goodness. The kids in the neighborhood are having a dandy time coloring two days a week. I just finished a grant trying to make an arts center at the school across from me. They said I could use a room for the neighborhood kids and they would get to do arts and crafts with their students. Hopefully we get the grant, I really want to do a public health project with the kids incorporating public health messages.

Mondays and Wednesdays I have VSLA meetings, we are up to 4 groups now! Fridays I try to keep open to do paperwork, office work and all that. And no day is complete without the requisite hanging out. Meaning I go sit with people and just...sit. It's a very important part of the PC experience. I've also been helping PC to get ready for the new batch of Public Health/SED volunteers, who came on Wednesday. So we have newbies! I hosted a trainer this week and I will be going to their training when I get back from the states. Hopefully I have some sort of wisdom to impart...

Sounds more or less pretty busy right? I feel like I'm doing a good amount of work each day but the days definitely seem longer here and there's a lot of free time. A lot. I have to be home by dark and most days I leave my house around 9ish so that's about 14 hours of alone time. My only neighbor in the compound isn't always home so it's just me. For a long time. What's a girl to do? I had the LSAT to take up study time but you can't just study for hours and hours on end. And, when studying becomes stressful, whaddya do? I started to think about the things I used to do in the states to reduce stress and fill bored days...Talk on the phoneGo clubbinGo shoppingWalk the streets of New YorkGo to a friends houseReadGo to the park, ballet, etcOk so not many on this list transfer to peri-urban Kenya. As such I had to get creative so I didn't lose my mind. There's only so much reading and tv watching a girl can do. Out of my boredom has come a love of baking. Well I always really liked to bake but in the past there were so many other things to do that didn't require that much effort. Alas, that is no longer the case and I have become a baking machine in the last couple of months. On my repertoire to date we have: bread, bagels, carrot cake, chocolate cake (with homemade frosting!), mac& cheese and banana bread. Remember that post way back when I first came to Kenya and I talked about how cooking was so much harder here? Well baking is like that squared. First problem: No oven. Solution: Make a jiko oven! What the hell is that??? Basically you take a big pot and fill it with sand or dirt. Place the pot on the gas cooker and put what you want to bake in a dish inside. It does work in the sense that it bakes but there's no temperature control and it can take awhile. Still, I can bake! Problem 2: No measuring utensils of any kind. Solution: guess. Problem 3: Recipes who don't understand the plight of the volunteer. I don't have a mixer. I don't have a candy thermometer or any of these other fancy tools recipes want me to use to bake. Solution: Just whip it all together and hope for the best. So far things have turned out pretty well, I put some pictures of the process below, enjoy! Today I had a potluck with some friends and brought the macaroni and cheese, they really liked it. I also made pickles!

My other stress relief has been "shopping" which here means tearing out designs out of magazine, finding fabric and giving it to my tailor. So far she's been doing a great job, 2 skirts and one dress. Pictures to come! A skirt costs me the equivalent of about $4 and the dress about $6 for her to make. Love it!

Finished Mac& Cheese!

I dance when I cook, no judgement!

The cake is ready to bake!

The pot with dirt

My own oven

Potluck!

Finished cake with frosting!

The boys and their birthday cake. They were beading so we were all having a domestic day. Brian is licking the frosting from the bowl. Stomachache!

What was your favorite book as a child? When I was young, I remember James and the Giant Peach, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and Are you there God, it's me Margaret. I also remember going to the library weekly with my mom and checking out as many books as she would let me. Ok, yes, I know I am making myself sound very much like a nerd here but the point is those books were available to me. I could lose myself in them, travel to a distant place or just read with the satisfaction that the my fears, joys, and anxieties about the world were not singular just to me.

Sadly, most children in Kenya don't have that luxury. Outside of the capital, libraries are virtually nonexistent. Schools have enough trouble getting (or allocating) funds to buy regular text books, let alone pleasure reading. The Form 3 (high school junior) business class I teach has a total of 4 textbooks for 27 students. That's including the book I use to make notes and share with students. 4. So what is the likelihood that such schools have a Judy Blume or Roald Dahl to avail to their students? Nil.

Butttttt...you can change that! How? Donate to my Books for Africa project!

https://www.booksforafrica.org/donate/to-project.html?projectId=77

Your donation will help provide books to various schools throughout Kenya. This is a collaborative project that I am working on with two volunteers from Eastern. Some of the schools will even get computers! Books for Africa sends free books to developing countries, asking only that host countries pay shipping. Shipping is a pretty penny though so please donate today!

Major kudos to Aunt Barbara, a personal champion of literacy, who was the first to donate. Thanks!!!

And, just in case I have not pulled at your heart strings enough, here are some photos of the children you would be helping!

We went to Hell's Gate and saw a hyena print...and then quickly went in the opposite direction!

Rusing Island in Lake Victoria, where PCV Adam lives. Some people have all the luck!

My Peace Corps Fam at Rusinga Island

Clare, me and Jenn having fun

When we get together, it's a guaranteed party! Porter, me, Clare, Adam, Jenn, Z

Some pictures of this week... more to come later...

Thank you cards for Kids to kids made during the drawing session

Moringa tree planting

Joyce showing off some earrings made during the beading session

The girls' idea of the "perfect man" during our love and relationships talk. Guess we women want the same things the world over!

Hellen, Masioi and Sekiyan enjoying computer class at the camp

Those are four words I really never thought I would say. It took me a long time to get used to living here in Narok- it's dry, dusty, and not really the village life I thought I was signing up for. But the more I stay here and the more people I meet and become friends with, the better it all gets. Here are a couple of reasons from the past couple of months of why life is so good:

Free Stuff

I have been the beneficiary of a bunch of free stuff lately. I think some people just take pity on the poor volunteer and others really just think of me as a neighbor they are helping out. For example, when I was moving, the director at the school close to me was instrumental in helping me get the apartment and made sure everything was comfortable. He and his wife weren't using a propane tank so they gave it to me, I just had to fill it up with gas, saving me about $50. Win. Then, last week, I was walking home because they raised the matatu ride from town to my house by 10 shillings (I know it doesn't sound like much but hey, I'm a volunteer!) and one of my usual matatu drivers saw me halfway and picked me up for free. I also got a free cab ride when I was coming home at dusk a couple of weeks ago. A teacher at the university recognized me and had the cab driver drop me for free. Top it off with this week I am coordinating another girls' camp for (more on that later) and I needed to get some supplies but had no idea where to get them from. Sueela, my favorite Narok businesswoman, just gave me what I needed for free. She rocks. The guy at the grocery store gave me some free Juicy Fruit because he knows I chew like 20 pieces a day and people always offer me food and chai whenever I go somewhere. All in all, it feels good to be part of the clan and it's really what “community integration”, that great PC buzz word, is all about. And, it's not just about the things that I get from people but also how willing they are to help me get things done. Even when I get upset because the people who are supposed to be helping me are no where to be found, someone else from the community comes through . So many people have volunteered their time and efforts to speak to the girls and teach them different things, it actually makes me feel like I'm doing something out here. Word.

Making a difference

They say Peace Corps is “The toughest job you'll ever love” and I used to think that was a load of crap. First, how is this job tough? I just have to sit in a developing country and hang out, right? And, what's to love about pit latrine toilets, weird illnesses, and being the odd black girl who doesn't speak our language for two years. But then, during the last couple of months, I've really been in a groove and feel like I'm starting to see what the real issues are and which ones I can actually address. It's also obvious now why the commitment is two years, it really does take almost a full year to get to know what the deal is. For example, today during the camp we spoke about nutrition and we made a food pyramid of healthy eating choices. When I asked the girls how many fruits and veggies total we should eat in one day, half of them told me 2! 2! When I said 5-9 they looked at me flabbergasted and then the question is, well how are we supposed to do that??? They are just given food to eat and don't have any say over how nutritious or good for them it is. And when they are at home, their parents may not have the money to buy fruit every day or to eat veggies in all colors. As a PCV, you see this as a problem you can actually try to make a solution for. If I can get some schools or even the plots by me to make kitchen gardens to better ensure that kids are getting more nutrients, I call that a wildly successful project and I call it a day and go home to read on my Kindle. That's the part I love. What's tough about it is getting people to see that it's important, feasible and a good idea. With all of that in mind, I'm supposedly starting my own kitchen garden next week. Lead by example.

Ending on a good note, the project site for our Books for Africa project is up, donate today!

https://www.booksforafrica.org/donate/to-project.html?projectId=77

Full post coming on this soon and I'll continue to hound you all for donations!!! Help bring much needed books to primary and secondary students in Kenya :-)

The website for my upcoming business fair is up and running, narokbusinessfair.weebly.com. No donations for that one are necessary but just wanted to promote myself haha.

So, I actually did write this on Wednesday but when I went to post it, I had run out of internet credit.

Today was a happy day. Today was a good day. Well mostly. I woke up around 7, made some breakfast, got dressed, cleaned up and headed into town to class. I had tuition today from 9-10 and it was the most frustrating hour of my life. I was trying to review a girl's exam with her and she just wasn't getting it. Thank goodness for that bell, I think we both felt like we were in some sort of torture. After that, I graded the other students exercises and headed off to my 11AM meeting.

I meet with a woman's group in town for Village Savings every Tuesday or Wednesday. The meetings are nice because the group is small (about 6), they are usually on time, and they understand the VSLA model pretty well now so I just kind of sit there and answer any questions they have. Today was also a special day because it was the end of our "prayer month". Last month, they wanted everyone in the group (me included) to pick someone else's name randomly and you pray for that person every day for a month and then at the end of the month you give them a present. I gave my partner a pair of earrings and I got a nice beaded headband. Smiles.

After that I had to go pick up the money for my next VSLA meeting, find some food, and then meet the other planning committee members of the business fair. We are trying to hold a business fair for May 13 for people all over the county and Nairobi. If it works out, it will be a big deal and make me very happy. If. Today we needed to register the group so that we can open a bank account and start accepting registration money. I was supposed to meet them at 1 so I had about an hour to run errands. I went to pick up the VSLA money that Josephine left for me at a photocopy place and I got scolded for having not come to say hi to them for a few weeks. I promised to do better, went and had some fries at a hoteli and then went to meet Sachiko and Moses. We walk all the way through dusty town up to the government offices area and of course we just missed the registration officer. She's off to lunch. I can't wait around for her because I'm supposed to be at my next meeting at 2. So we take the dusty road back to town and have some good conversation. Sachiko wanted to see the VSLA model so she tagged along at the next meeting, 20km away in a village Rotian. They only squished us 4 in the back of the car so I was thankful for that and the women were almost on time for the meeting. The meeting was supposed to start at 2 and most were there by 3, this is a success these days in my book. The savings and loaning process also went much more smoothly than last time and everybody left happy. Sach and I squeezed into a matatu on the way back where I sat on a sack of vegetables and she sat on a shopping bag filled with who knows what. I got back into town with Sachiko around 5, we went to Naivas (supermarket) and I splurged on some oranges and broccoli. The little things. Back in the tuk tuk on the way home, buy some eggs and kale, drop everything at home and head to my supervisors house to scan some things for the donor. On the way out I run into the kids I was supposed to meet yesterday and tried to explain to them in really bad Swahili that I didn't see them yesterday but we can draw tomorrow. Walking to the house I see some kids playing their own version of "games": rifling through burned garbage, sliding a smaller child on a sheet or coat, or just sitting throwing rocks. Resolve to play with the kids tomorrow.

I get to the house, greet everyone, scan all the documents and try to send them to the donor but of course the internet doesn't feel like working at that particular moment. Decide to wait until the night and go hang out in the living room. Watch a badly dubbed Filipino telenovela that I think I'm beginning to get hooked on. Play with my buddy Sian and head home about 7. In the two minutes it takes me to get from his house to my apartment, the electricity has gone out. Of course. And I used all of my computer battery scanning documents. Of course. Can't take a shower without the electricity so I just lay on the bed and read by booklight. After it's almost 8 and it doesn't seem like the stima is coming back anytime soon, I go make dinner in the dark (brown rice, steamed carrots, broccoli, kale and tomatoes to make up for the fries earlier), eat in the dark, still reading with the booklight. I decide to give the electricity till 10 to come back on before I give up hope of bathing today. At 9:49, I finish my book and the lights come back on. Smiles. Shower, gchat, emails, blog post. 11:49, day is done! Nite nite!

I haven't blogged in awhile. Partly because I feel like I only have the same things to say and partly because some of the new things I have to say aren't so nice... Like my momma told me, if you don't have something nice to say...

So, this week I am bringing you Days of My Life. Certainly not as drama filled as a soap opera but it will give you all a better idea of what happens on the day to day. Many of you have asked what I do on a daily basis and we have some new volunteers coming in a couple of months who, if they are anything like me, are scouring the internet looking for some glimpse into what the hell they are getting themselves into for the next 26 months. Of course this comes with the caveat that all volunteers are different, so what is my experience is not necessarily that of others and even my own experience changes. I'm starting from yesterday because that's when I meant to write the first post...Enjoy!!!

Tuesday April 12th,

I woke up around 6:30 so that I could wash clothes (of course by hand) before I had to leave. My new place (I moved! No more mice!) has piping inside the house but they left the pipes without water too long and now there's rust. This rust turns to orange spots on your clothes as I found out the hard way last week. So I draw water from the tank directly and get to work. Because it's still a little chilly in the morning, I choose to wash clothes from my couch while watching Chuck. Good times. I finished about 7:30, made breakfast (3 scrambled eggs with tomatoes and onions, banana, apple, peanut butter- having control over my own food is a luxury I will never again take for granted), got dressed and then headed off to school. On the way out, the kids on my street were waiting for me with an onslaught of, Sasa Megan! Habari Megan! Give me chocolate! To the last one I give the stank face but to the other two greetings I happily respond. This is a great change from just a few weeks ago when I still got Mzungu! Mzungu! I think the tipping point was I gave some girls a jump rope and some popsicle stick animals my brother made, they loved it and made everyone start calling me my name. Today they want me to play with them, which I promised them yesterday if they left me alone. Time to pay up.

School is officially out but these kids really don't get much of a holiday because 2 weeks of their 3 1/2 week break are spent in "tuition". Tuition is basically an hour of each class Mon-Fri where the teacher can choose to review topics from the term or keep teaching new stuff. After some of the abysmal scores my students got on my exam, I decided reviewing was the best course. Anyway we learned 6 chapters this term and there's only 3 more to go for the next two terms. So, I have been taking each student one by one and reviewing the exam with them, asking them what they find difficult and what they find easy in the class, and giving tons of assignments. I'm trying to get them out of simply memorizing (how most students learn here) into actually thinking about the problems and solutions. I want them to think intuitively and arrive at the answer on their own. Work in progress.

Before my class I had a Swahili lesson from one of the teachers. I hope it helps, I really would like to be able to hold a semi-decent conversation at some point. I can introduce myself and follow along with the formalities pretty well and I can even understand a fair amount of what people say to me if they speak slowly and use easy words, But talking to kids is hard and I would like to infuse more Swahili in my teaching because I think part of what is tripping a lot of the students up is they just have no idea what the heck I am talking about. If I give a definition of supply using the word commodity but you don't know what a commodity is, how can I expect you to understand the definition? Anywho, I had my Swahili lesson before class and then after class I headed to see on of my beader friends. He works at a hoteli all the way on the other side of town. Bored, I decided to try a new way over there and passed by a Youth Rec Center/ Gym. It was closed (obvi) but I made a mental note to go back and check it out again at some point. My friend is working at a curio shop at a nice hotel in town and he's teaching me how to make some beaded things. Those of you whose birthday has recently passed were supposed to receive one of my creations but let's just say they aren't yet ready for the general public. I sat and beaded with him and chatted for about an hour, talking about Kenya, America, development, corruption, and all those fun topics. He used to live in Nairobi and Mombasa so his English is great and his mom lives in Germany so he has an interesting worldview.

After that, I was supposed to meet Josephine in town to shop for skirts but the dust defeated me. It's supposed to be rainy season and it even flooded here a couple of weeks ago but it hasn't rained since. Now all the mud from the flood has turned to a fine dust particle that gets kicked up as motorcycles, bicycles, people, cars, and trucks go along the road. Add a strong wind to it and you are literally eating dust. Not fun. At this point it's about 3PM so I figure it's as good a time as any to call it a day. I get home, take a shower since I'm all dusty, look for the kids who wanted to play and, when I don't see them, settle on the couch with my Kindle. I can't tell you how much I love my Kindle and how much it saves my sanity at certain points. The rest of the day fades away as I read, fall asleep, read some more. Porter was in town taking care of some business with Operation Smile and he came over with a friend around 7:30. After that, we drank some wine, watched some Law&Order on my computer, and it was bedtime!

OK, I'm off to a meeting, I know you all are waiting with bated breath for the next installment so check back tonight!

So, I talked to my mom last night and she said she had read yesterday's post and boy I must be p-oed! Looking back over the post, I can see how it could read like that but really the past month and half has been the most fulfilling since I have come to Kenya. Even though the process has been difficult and at times very frustrating, many of the groups I am working with now are motivated. Also, when they see you get tough and they know you are serious, I have found groups tend to be more serious as well.

Case in point, today I had a meeting with a VSLA group and we did our first share purchase. Now, this may not seem like much but it means the group has actually saved something and it has gone from me just explaining an idea to countless groups to an actual project. I could tell they were a bit frustrated because their group is small and they only save 400KSH (about $5) but I'm very excited to see how much they have saved at the end of the year. And, even though the chairlady was 40 minutes late, the group was sure to tell her that she needed to pay her fine as soon as she got there!

Also, I'm adding a picture of one of the businesswomen I have been in good contact with in town. She started out making beaded jewelry in her home and now she has been able to purchase another home and use that one as her office! She also does tailoring and even has made something for a royal member in Libya. I like hanging out in her shop because she gets business and she really wants to improve her life and the lives of her people. She has taught over 500 women in Kenya and Tanzania to do beading as a business. Spotlight!

Many apologies for my long absence in blogging. This time, thankfully, I have not blogged as much out of sheer busy-ness and not frustration. The past couple of months I have been trying to get a few projects started and, even though it's Valentine's Day, I've had to dish a little tough love...

Teaching

I started teaching at Masikonde Secondary School at the beginning of January. I'm teaching Form 3 (Junior in high school) business studies on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The kids were a little hard to crack at first but now I think we are getting used to each other. At first I was afraid they wouldn't understand my English but they seem to be getting what I say between speaking, writing on the board, passing out notes, and group assignments. But, I had to get on them because many times they just stare at me. I ask a question and they just look blankly. I just had to remind them that I'm not the one who has to take a standardized test at the end of the year- I already passed my economics classes! Teaching at the school brings a whole new dynamic to the picture. The school I teach at is made of students who are very poor, most can't afford books or school fees and they get chased away by the school until they can pay. (Side note: this actually happened last week and I came to class only to find 7 of my 22 students.) Being at the school also allows me to be in contact with different kinds of people. There are 5 male teachers and one female teacher at the school, excluding me. The other week I was hanging out in the staff room after class and the only female teacher was in Nairobi that day. This turned into (of course) the discussion about marrying an American or white (they seem to be the same to them) woman and me trying to explain that there is a very slim chance your American woman is going to wait on you hand and foot and allow you to cheat on and/or beat her. To this point, one teacher told me that it was "in the African blood" to treat women that way, that the Bible says women are to be submissive...yea you see where this conversation is going. I just responded that if you were to try that on the American women I know, you would probably end up out on the street with nothing to show for it. After giving examples of American women who had divorced and took half of their husband's possessions for what these teachers claim is just in their DNA, I asked, so you probably don't want to marry an American any more huh? Oh, yes of course we do! I give up...

NEST

Since late last year, I have been working with an organization in America, NEST , which seeks to buy handicrafts from women artisans in developing countries and sell them. It also has a micro-bartering component with it. Part of the program is that the women are taught on how to make things on time and to quality control standards. We have been trying to get an order together and I was very close with one group but... My contact at NEST told me she needed a sample by Friday for a beading applique someone had asked about. I gave the order to a group of disabled women in town. They had come to me before and told me that they would like to work to pay for school fees for their children and put food on the table but finding work as a disabled person is hard and beading is something they can do at home. From that, I thought they would have been overjoyed to have the order. I had given them a copy of the picture the contact from NEST sent to me a while back but they told me the design was too difficult for them to figure out. After speaking with NEST again, I met with them on Tuesday, gave them a picture of what the client wanted and explained that they are free to use their artistic license to create whatever design and pattern with whatever colors they would like. The only stipulations are that it must conform to the size and shape of the spec paper I had given them. We agreed I would come and take a photo of the sample on Friday at 10. Friday at 10 comes and I am waiting at the group leader's house. She is not there. Two other women are there but they tell me that they have not completed the sample. When I ask why, they say the design was too hard. Trying to hide my irritation, I tell them that I told them on Tuesday they were free to do whatever design they wanted, it just needed to be that size and shape. Also, I am not happy because I told them that the client needed the sample today and if they had a problem with it they should have called me on Tuesday or Wednesday instead of waiting until today and having me come all the way to their house for no reason. Now's the time for tough love. I told them there wouldn't be an order if they did not produce a sample by today. They told me they would bring me a sample at 2PM. 2PM came and went and no phone call. So , I decided they are out. No more orders for them. Some people may say that is being too harsh and they should get another chance. However, I want these women to know that this is a job, not a handout. There are literally hundreds of women who bead in my area and for them not to call and ask about a misunderstanding or even to produce the sample after I gave them extra time was just not acceptable to me. Also, as the representative to NEST on behalf of these women, I owe it to the organization to find the most reliable and best quality work that is available.

VSLA

I don't know if I talked about Village Savings and Loan Associations in posts before but I have been working on trying to get them up and running in my area for the better part of 4 months now. Basically, they are self-selected groups where each member contributes or "saves" at each meeting and the savings are used to make loans to the group. Then, at the end of one year, each member receives their savings plus a proportional amount of the interest earned back. I really like the program because 1) groups can start one without any outside funds, 2)it promotes savings and helps women understand loans through small borrowing and repayment, and 3) it is sustainable (the magic PC buzz word). After one year the Field Officer (me) leaves the group to run on its own. They make their own constitution and major things like the interest rate charged, etc are determined by the group, not outsiders. I think this idea is wonderful. Some of the groups I present it too however, just wonder why I can't just give or find them a loan. I have been working with a couple groups though and it would have been two more but tough love had to come out. Both groups had two chances at meeting times and either no one showed up or only a few people showed up. Thus, I had to institute a new rule: If after three times your group does not show up for a meeting, you're out. Granted, I'm not the busiest bee in the world right now but my time is still valuable to me and waiting around for two hours with no reason from a group tells me they are not interested. After the second missed meeting with the two groups, I told them to gather their serious members and give me a call when they want me to come back and teach the VSLA system. That was over a month ago and I'm still waiting...

Books for Africa

I have been trying to do a Books for Africa (booksforafica.org) project with three other volunteers in Eastern. Basically, books are donated and then BFA sends them to Kenya and we just have to pay shipping. It ends up being about $4000 for 5000 books- not a bad deal. I never believe in giving something away for nothing so I am asking the schools who would like to receive books to pay 25% of the cost. This amounts to 15 shillings a book, or less than 20cents. That's about 10% of the cost of the cheapest novel these schools could purchase here in Kenya. Sounds great right? Well, some schools thought that was just too much money for them to spare, hoping I would just give them the books. Sorry, doesn't work like that! Again, it may sound harsh, but just giving them books only increases dependency syndrome and reduces the chance that they will actually appreciate and take care of the books. Also, as with the beads, there are plenty of schools that are very excited about the opportunity to purchase books for their students at such a reduced rate and so those are the schools I am working with first. If there are extra books, I probably will donate them to a school that I know is very needy but as economists say, there's no free lunch!

So, those are most of the projects I am working on currently. Oh, expect for me to hit you guys up to help cover the other 75% for BFA :-) It might seem like I'm being unduly harsh but I would rather spend my two years here working with people that actually appreciate what I'm trying to do and actually want to be a partner in the process, not just a receiver. And, it's is INCREDIBLY frustrating to feel like you are giving something your all and those that you are doing it for don't seem to care. Also, by pulling out my Wall Street side and being tough, I have found some good partners to work with and I would rather work with 2 or 3 dedicated organizations and groups than 15 flaky ones. For me, it's not so much about the number of people I work with as the depth that I'm able to reach with those that I do.

SHOUT OUTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dad&Tracy: Even though it took months and Tracy almost rained fire on the post office, I got both of my Xmas packages. Thanks so much!!! I have to learn or relearn many of the games in the 11 in 1 box set but once I teach the girls, I know they will love it. I'm also glad from some new shirts and JUNK FOOD!!!

Trenita: Yours also took forever but I'm so glad I got it. I am the ultimate fatty licking the wrapper of the zebra cakes and as I told you on FB, in the first week I wore one of the new shirts 3x and one of them 2x. Thanks :-)

Talibah: My Valentine, thank you for your package. I'm going home to watch for colored girls and your film submission. You and Trenita rock on with the Essence, you guys covered me on January and February.

Michanne: Happy Birthday yesterday :-) Hope you are catching the ballet!

Mom: Thanks for taking care of all the mundane stuff and sending me all I ask for, love ya!

I leave you with two pictures. These are pictures after walking around town all day. One foot has been washed and one hasn't. So tired of the dust!!!!!!!!!

To all those who write, email, gchat, and facebook it really helps me get through the good days and the bad. LOVE Y'ALL!

And I got it! I just didn't know it would be white sand, instead of white snow! I know I pretty much a month late but here's how the holidays went, Kenya style...

I met up with a few volunteers about a week before Christmas. Some people had boyfriends/girlfriends come in from America so we had a grand old time in Nairobi. We went to a place, Village Market, which may very well be the most western place in East Africa. Shisha, pool, bowling, waterpark, food, fountains, yep it's all there. After some bowling and clubbing, some of us set off the next day for Loitoktok. Loitoktok is the closest thing to "home" I'll ever get in Kenya. Of course it doesn't compare to my real home and real family but, hey, work with whacha got right? My brother met me at the stage and Baba met me at the road to the house. Everyone was excited to see me and I was excited to see everyone. Mama made my favorites (lentils and chapati) and I basically sat in the house for two days watching music videos with my brother and sister. It was a completely different place since it had rained substantially in the four months I had been gone. The Loitoktok I remember was a dusty nemesis that threatened to leave me dirty each time I tried to walk out of the door. This Loitoktok was green and bright and I even got to see our full shamba (far), which was much bigger than I originally thought.

Even though the fam tried to guilt trip me into staying through Christmas, I was too excited to get to the coast for it to work. I left with another volunteer, Lee Ann, on Wednesday and headed to Mombasa where we met up with some other volunteers at a "hostel". I put it in quotes because it's really just a house with a bunch of beds in it. The owners were really nice and cool though and I would remember that bunk bed fondly in the days to come...

After a quick stop in Mombasa for a couple of nights, we headed to One Love Island. There was a volunteer who just COS'd (finished his service) from there so we had a few connections and were able to rent the island for 2,000 shillings per night per person including food. That's about $22 per person for a private island, not too shabby :-) Now we were sleeping in tents and the shower/bathroom situation was a bit precarious but it was beautiful and I woke up Christmas morning and had a sunrise swim in the Indian Ocean. We had such a great time that most of us stayed a second night on the island and I'm so glad I did, the food was AMAZING! All the food is cooked by this guy's mom on the mainland and then brought over by boat. I think I had 5 pieces of fish that day. YUM. Christmas day was more fun and games and water play.

After Christmas, we headed to Diani Beach, where we stayed until New Years. We stayed in our tents again at a place called Stilts, which, incidentally, is across the street from the main bar in the area. Pretty much the days went like this:

7AM: Wake up in tent because it's blazing hot on the coast and the tent is like an oven

7:05: Find a cool place to sleep

9: Wake up, eat breakfast go to beach

12:Wake up from nap on beach, go to lunch, go back to beach

5: Shower from day at beach, go to dinner

9: Go to club, dance in ocean, go to bed

Life can be hard sometimes, ya know?

Two volunteers had rented a little apartment not too far from where we were staying and were gracious enough to host us and cook some really good meals. After about day 2 of the tent, I realized that I am not, nor will ever be, a tent girl no matter how much I would like to be. I like beds. And pillows. And structures that keep monkeys and ants away. All in all, the week was great and New Years was definitely one I will always remember. This is, of course, the cliff's notes version and those of you who were lucky enough to receive phone calls from me while at the club (sorry about that!) probably can fill in where I've left things out. It certainly wasn't as great as a holiday season in the States with family but it definitely wasn't too bad either.

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! I'll get to all the holiday festivities another day but just wanted to post an email I sent to a fellow PCV last night...

Sigh...lets see just how *** the night got in the last hr.. waited

till 9 for dinner and its rice and potatoes. i almost cried. luckily

my sis called so i excused myself and warmed up bath water. go in my

room to talk to sis and see a mouse run under my wall because nowhere

in my room does the wall actually touch the ground. run back in the

main house. pull water for bath from tank, bucket has a major hole,

water all over my feet. use another bucket finish warming water.

trying to get off phone with sis to bathe and stima* goes out. go out

in pitch black to get head lamp to bathe but scared of mice because

light is what scares them away. retrieve head lamp, tell supers wife

about mouse problem while swinging head lamp. hit head lamp on wall

and break it. bathe in dark. return to room in dark, hear mice. forgo

brushing teeth. put on ipod, climb under net.

ahhh peace corps...

If this night would have happened a year ago, I probably would have dissolved into tears but I was actually laughing to myself as I wrote the email because, what else can you do? A broken headlamp is no laughing matter however. RIP...Moment of silence please...

*stima= electricity

With the camp over, I was ready to fully focus on village banking, what I hope will be my primary project while I'm here. Village banks are self-selected savings and loan associations meant for those normally outside of the formal banking sector. Even though micro-finance is the sexy topic of the decade, most truly poor people are still excluded because of outrageous fees or inaccessibility. With a village bank, the members of the group save small amounts through a share purchase program and those contributions are used to give loans to members in the group. The interest on the loans is kept within the group and then at the end of the year all profits and savings are re-distributed on a proportionate basis to what each member has saved. Best of all, ideally no outside money is needed, which reduced the ever present dependency syndrome in this country. OK, I know that was probably super boring for most of you but when I first saw this program online in August, I was so excited to get it started in Rift Valley. About a month ago I went to Nyanza to stay with another volunteer, Nadiya, and train on creating village banks. That week was awesome, socially and work-wise, and I will have to put pictures up later. Nyanza is like a Different World from where I come from (dang, I miss re-runs).

So far, I have two, possibly three, groups that I could start village banking with. All of them are women's groups and if it works out well hopefully I can expand it more into the interior where it is more needed. Explaining the process is the most difficult thing; it took our donor Nia a few times of me explaining in English for her to understand. Now imagine explaining it in Swahili or having it translated into Maasai where most of the words dealing with finance don't even exist! I'll be at all the meetings for the groups the first 2 months at least, so hopefully any misunderstandings can be resolved. And, thankfully, these are women I have known for a few months so we understand each other generally a bit more. I wanted to start off in January with the groups up and running but this country basically shuts down after mid-December- no complaints here!

Hope everyone is enjoying the snow, my uncle sent me a picture of snow covered Cleveland and not being home for Christmas is actually a much bigger bummer than I thought it would be. I had to physically stop myself from dissolving into tears many times yesterday and have just resolved to believe that Christmas is not actually happening this year. This is made easier by the fact that I am currently sitting in the sun with a T-shirt on ;-)

So.... this day took place a week and a half ago but after the camp ended I was too tired to post for awhile...

The last day of the camp was about career exploration and goal setting. If you ask an average a Kenyan student- girl or boy- what they want to be when they grow up you will invariably get doctor or nurse with the occasional teacher or accountant thrown in. While an overwhelming number of students wanting to be a medical professional is generally present in any country, what makes it more difficult in Kenya is that the kids really don't get to choose what they will study in college/university. You take a standardized test (similar to the Regents for my New York readers) and your scores on that test determine what, if any, major university program you qualify for. If you score high enough for the medical track, you can study medicine. If not, you won't be becoming a doctor unless you have a ton of money. In other words, my gameplan of choosing a major senior year of college would not have gone over nicely here...

Since they don't really get to choose what they want to do, I mostly wanted them to know about other careers that are out there and how to set realistic goals. If you don't qualify for one of the major tracks, all hope is not lost. There are hundreds of diploma and certificate programs someone can get in all sorts of subjects. I can't tell you how well these are regarded but at least they are out there. We had two women come and talk about their respective careers- one is a social worker and the other a youth officer. Then an education officer came to talk to them about how to choose a career path. After lunch we played two games to demonstrate the importance of realistic goal setting and networking (thanks Antony and PEPFAR!). Before the last session started, it was time for the question cup. At the beginning of the week, I put a question cup in the house and told the girls they could put any questions in there that they were too shy to ask in front of the gang. On the last day I answered all of the questions they had placed in the cup. Here are a few highlights from the cup:

--How do I stop having a boyfriend after having one for a long time?

--I hate my big pot belly and always worry my shirt won't cover it. How can I reduce?

--I like a boy but he never pays attention to me more than a friend, how can I get him to be my boyfriend?

It was a fun conversation to have with them and hopefully I gave them decent answers!

The last activity of the week was to make a vision board. Major shout out to all of you who have sent me magazines the past six months, they not only gave reading pleasure to the Peace Corps Kenya community but also were great resources for the girls to make their vision boards with. Essence and Ebony were naturally great hits!

So, with the camp over I retired to my room to relax and enjoy a (few) glass (es) of wine :-)

Bad internet today so pictures to come another day!

By Day 3, I was exhausted and so thankful that the other PCVs were there to help me de-stress! I was actually giving the lecture on Day 3. Life Skills is supposed to be taught in secondary schools in Kenya, but many schools don't offer it because they lack a teacher. It is supposed to cover things like dealing with peer pressure, gender roles, self-esteem, etc. Since many of the girls are headed into secondary and the others are headed into the real world, I wanted to start them off with a little help. I gave a discussion on stress, what causes stress, and the best ways to deal with it. Next, Andrea gave a session on yoga and meditation which was VERY well received. On Friday, a mom told me that her daughter came home that day and gave her some meditation tips. Although it was hard to do a lot of the poses, like warrior pose, in skirts, the girls had a lot of fun and I especially liked the 10 minute quiet reflection :-) In the afternoon, I did a second session on self-esteem. Many of the girls lack confidence, they don't speak up and speak very low when they are asked something. We talked about surrounding ourselves with positive people and then we had a mini photo shoot in the courtyard, where I had to resist saying several times, "THE CAMERA LOVES YOU!" After the photo shoot, they all made and decorated their own "stress diaries".

Thursday was Environment Day and the JICA volunteer, Sachiko, came over to give a talk on environmental education. There's a big disconnect though because they all know the things they need to do to save the environment, the namely saving and replanting trees. Yet, most families still use charcoal or firewood to cook meals and heat water. I tried to garner some interest in biomass briquettes when I first got here but it's a bit like hybrid cars- the price point isn't quite there for the low/middle income consumer. In any case, after the lecture, we went back to the house to try and cook a cake with a solar cooker (Thanks Giles and Nia!). Unfortunately, the day became overcast so the cake was half cooked in the solar and half in the jiko oven. The last activity of the day was supposed to be making a sack garden, something I was really excited about, but rain was looming so we just enjoyed the afternoon off.

Enjoy the pictures!

Hellen posing for the camera

Andrea leading yoga and meditation

I really need to stretch more!

Siato smiling!

The theme for Tuesday was all health related, which was great because I got to utilize some fellow public health volunteers. Clare came from Eastern province and helped with field day games but first we had a discussion with a female doctor from the hospital. The girls got to ask her all kinds of questions about their bodies, female circumcision, sex, illness, disease, etc and they were much more active than I had thought they would be. But of course, as always, I tried to do way too many things at one time. Those of you who watched my Cribs video know that my house is, ahem, small to say the least. Knowing I would have 2-3 people staying with me this week, I had to do something to create a bit more space. I never bought a bed frame when I got to site, I just used the one that was already waiting in my bedroom. However, it was a bit too small for my mattress meaning I could never quite tuck my mosquito net in. Last week, I decided to get a new bed made, one with drawers underneath so that I would finally have a place to put my clothes. Sounds simple enough right? Wrong. First, the fundi (carpenter) changed the price on me. He told me he would have it ready by Sunday and when I went to pick it up, not only was it not ready but he was trying to charge me an extra 1500 shillings! We got all that taken care of and I told him I would be by to pick up the bed on Tuesday morning. I get there Tuesday and the drawers are on the wrong side of the bed! The way my room is situation, I really need to have the bed where it is so now my bed is sitting backwards in my room. Which, I guess I should feel lucky because it almost didn't fit in the room at all.

After this little fiasco, it was time to start the camp for the day. After the doctor's session, Clare began Field Day. The girls LOVED it! We played dizzy bat, jump rope, had a sack race, a balloon race, did limbo and musical chairs. Many of the girls had never played any of the games, save maybe jump rope, and they are all teenagers! Since it was all fairly new to them they really enjoyed playing and just being outside.

After lunch we had a session on basic first aid. Many of them do not know what to do when someone is choking or how to care for a basic burn or sprain. We stressed the importance of keeping your wounds clean since the doctor told me that morning a little girl will have to have her foot amputated because she burned it three weeks ago and her father had just been trying to treat it with herbal remedies so it turned gangerous. Not fun. After first aid training, we talked about peer pressure and I gave them scenarios with different situations. They then made a drama, song, or story about how the person in the scenario should handle the problem. I was really impressed with their creativity!

In the middle of all this, another PCV Andrea came from Eastern to help out on Wednesday. It hasn't rained in about a month here but of course the day I need to schlep to town to get visitors, it's pouring! We decided to beat the rain and stop off for a drink at one of the restaurants I like.

Pictures!!!!!!!!!!

Limbo!

Anita and the sack race

Hellen going for the gold in the balloon race!

Masioi and Jecinta touching the ground with the jump rope

Jecinta won the limbo!

More posts to come tonight... I have never been so excited for a Friday!

Enjoying the discussion

Trying to untangle the knot

Success!

Women leaders they admire

As I said awhile back, I have been working on a holiday camp for the girls when they are home from school and the preparation for the camp has been the main cause of my lack of posts lately. During their last holiday break I noticed the majority of the time was spent watching Nigerian movies on the couch. While that may be fun for a week or two of decompressing after a term of school, a whole month and the girls just seemed bored. Today was the first day and, of course, it didn't go smoothly but went well nonetheless.

The speaker for today was a woman named Sintalo who I met at the plow competition at the end of October. She is young, Maasai, and a financial advisor for an insurance company so I thought she would be the perfect one to talk to the girls about leadership. She can relate to the girls and what they are going through in their lives right now in ways I just can't. The session was fantastic even though we did start an hour late. For the most part, the girls seemed interested and asked a bunch of questions so smiles :-)

After lunch we started with an activity, The Human Knot, where the girls stand in a circle and grab the hands of two people opposite them and then have to untangle themselves. After that we talked about different leadership styles and they each drew a picture or wrote a poem about a woman leader they admire and why. One drew a picture of me! I have been feeling really homesick the last week so that really helped me remember why I'm here and to keep on pushin'! They are all really shy and speak with a real lack of confidence so I hope I can work with them on speaking up and speaking out.

Now, PCV Clare is here from Eastern to help with tomorrow's activities. Stay tuned!

Pictures coming soon!

Sorry for the delay in writing folks. I've been in and out of site for different meetings and trainings, don't worry I'll catch you all up on it. First, I would like to dedicate this blog post to my mom who is always confused by my Kenyan lexicon and inspired this topic. Also, hello to Brian's mom- thanks for reading!

Transport in Kenya, while improving everyday thanks to China and their money for tarmac roads, is still not really ever a pleasant experience. There are, however, a myriad of options to get from point A to point B.

Matatu:

This picture was taken from the inside of my matatu on Thanksgiving. A matatu is a Nissan van that is supposed to fit 14 people. Matatus are the primary mode of transportation for most Kenyans who are going farther than 20 or 30km. Each town has a matatu stage where all of the vans congregate and vie for the business of travelers headed in their direction. If you are trying to get someplace but you aren't near a stage, just start walking in the direction of your destination and flag one down. There are two seats in the front plus a console seat and the driver's seat, and then 2 rows of 3 seats, and one back row of 4 seats. I don't have to tell you all that 14 is never the number of people in a matatu- unless you are nearing a police checkpoint. One time Frank and I rode back from Kisumu with 23 other people!

Tuk Tuk (Narok): I don't yet have a picture of the Narok version of a tuk tuk but it's a van about half the size of a matatu. These are used to get from my house to town (about 3 km). It costs 20 shillings (about a quarter) per ride and normally they don't pack them tightly because there are so many running back and forth to town. It is, however, very small (think Geo Metro) and takes some maneuvering of the hips to get in and out.

Tuk Tuk (Kisumu):

These are used in Kisumu, the major city in Western Kenya, to get around the city. Technically they hold 3 passengers, but we have fit up to six before. Usually they are open on the sides and the driver sits up front.

Boda Boda:

I really wish I had a picture of myself on the back of one but it's a bit awkward to take. A boda boda is a bicycle that you ride on the back of. They use these a lot in Western and Nyanza, the parts of Kenya close to Uganda. In fact, the term boda boda derives from their original use as a way to get across the border from Kenya to Uganda/ Tanzania. I like this form of transport the best because you get to see a lot of the scenery as you are passing (I have to sit side saddle with my skirt on) but then you start to feel a bit bad as the guy is huffing and puffing your weight, his weight, and the weight of the bike up the hills of Kenya. Other than that, quite a relaxing ride!

Piki piki:

I certainly don't have a picture of myself on one of these because it's strict rule from Peace Corps Kenya that volunteers can't ride motorcycles. In fact, if I'm ever caught on one I will be on the next plane back to America. Kenyans, however, use piki pikis a lot- they are fast becoming a primary mode of transportation especially in the rural areas. Look- it's a family vehicle!

Now, of course, there always the regular forms of transportation- like my two legs. That I use a lot. I also have my own bicycle but after Frank got hit by a truck walking in town, I decided it best to keep my bike excursions off the main road so I don't ride to town. Of course there are private taxis- usually Camry's. There are also shared taxis similar to Ford Taurus wagons if you are only going 20km or so. These should seat 4 total plus the driver but usually there are 4 people in the front, 4 in the back and at least 2 in the boot.

To fully grasp the travel situation here, I'll give a recent example. I went to another PCV, Nadiya's, site in Nyanza to train on village banking last week. To give an idea of distance, Kenya is about 2x the size of Nevada and I was going from the mid-west of the country to the western edge. To get there I...

Took a tuk tuk from my house into town.

Got on the matatu headed west in town.

Switched to another matatu in Kericho (about 3 hours from me)

Got off in Kisumu and took a tuk tuk to the hotel (it's now dark and we aren't supposed to travel after dark)

Stayed the night in the hotel.

Woke up in the morning, met her supervisor and went to two meetings in Kisumu by boda boda (with my 75L hiking back pack on- I thought I was going to tip off the back of the bike!)

Took a boda boda to the Kisumu stage

Got on a matatu to Siaya

Switched to another matatu going to Uranga

Arrived at her site, Uranga, and took a boda boda to her house

Total forms of transportation: 10

Total hours (not including sleeping in Kisumu) :11

More on Nadiya's site later! Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I celebrated with other volunteers and we made a great meal but nothing beats home! Miss you all

Some days I don't feel like going into town. It's noisy and dusty and I would just rather hang out around the house. Yesterday was one of those days. However, staying at home turned out to be just as interesting. I'm sitting in my room when I hear a bunch of kids at the gate. Our compound has a metal gate but it's only locked at night. I recognize some of the kids from the neighborhood and I hear the talking about Sianne's bicycle. One of them comes in the gate and I hear them going towards the house saying they are going to take her bike. Of course I can't properly communicate to them why this is not okay so I run in the house and tell the girls Sianne is about to get jacked. Problem solved, or so I think, until I hear them outside of the gate again talking about the bike. Somehow I managed to shoo them away.

When Frank was here last week he started talking about an egg salad sandwich and ever since then I have not been able to get it off of my mind. I had also been craving a tuna fish sandwich for a few weeks so, since lunch and dinner were going to be rice and potatoes again I decided to go to the supermarket and make these sandwiches a reality. I know I am incredibly fortunate that some of my food desires can be instantly satisfied. Frank and Brian would have to travel 3 hours on a bumpy road just to get to this supermarket. There are little vans that travel along the road going into town and they always drop off at a gas station on the edge of town. This gas station also happens to be where my stalker works. When I was fresh in town and trying to do my community needs assessment I made the grave error of giving one of the guys that I knew at the gas station my number so that I could interview him for the report. Silly me. He started calling multiple times in a day/hour to the point where I had to block his number which only made him call from a different number and ask me why I'm blocking his calls. If you have to ask... Finally I told him he is calling too much and to stop calling. Thankfully, he did. But, I still have to pass him nearly every time I go into town because that's where the tuk tuk drops off. Of course he's working yesterday. Here is a synopsis of the conversation:

Stalker: Where have you been?

Me: Here in town.

Stalker: Meet with me tomorrow.

Me: Why?

S: I want to talk to you

Me: About what?

S: About you.

Me: What about me?

S: About me and you. I want to be more than your friend.

Me: No. That's never going to happen. We don't need to meet.

S: But we can try?

Me: No.

You get the picture. I was annoyed and irritated. Ordinarily, I would just blatantly ignore the person but since I have to see him all the time and I'm the one who is new in town, I'm trying to keep things nice.

I really wanted that sandwich so I was trying to get the stuff from the supermarket and get home as soon as possible. On the way back to the gas station to get a tuk tuk home and group of probably mid-20s guys sitting on a bench decided to play the mzungu game. This game is usually played by children and it's annoying even then. It involves the participants saying "How are you?" in an incredibly annoying and nasal voice repeatedly. You can imagine how irritating this is from grown men. Finally, I'm in the tuk tuk and on the way home. But not before the lady sitting next to me decides she needs to sit clooooooseeeeee to me and then tries to fish things out of her purse, which of course means her elbows are flying all over the place in my face. Exasperated I give a look of death and move my arms so that she can't flap her wings all over the place. Ugh. Halfway home and the tuk tuk dies. Great. Now we have to wait for another one and pile in to get home. If I didn't have a bag full of groceries, including eggs in a plastic bag, I would have just walked. But I get to spend the rest of the way home with chicken lady, flapping her elbows all over.

When I got home, I decided to do a little exploring because I was tired of being in the house and desperately needed some exercise. I took a way around the back of the house that I had only been once and found a nice clearing where I could sit and read with only the sound of cow bells interrupting. It was a great two hours of peace and quiet. On the way back home (when everyone looks at the crazy mzungu who sits alone and reads) I run into the gang of kids who tried to steal Sianne's bike rummaging through trash. They ask again for her bike and I say it's not mine or theirs, it's hers. Then they ask for my bike and I tell them they are too small to ride it. Finally they ask for money so I tell them to give me something for my money. They hold up a decaying pineapple from and I politely refuse and keep heading home. For some reason these kids don't annoy me and now them asking me for things has just become a sort of game because they know I won't give them anything. Back at home I see that I missed some good fun. Apparently someone forgot to close the gate and 2 donkeys wondered in the compound. Awesome. I finally made my tuna fish sandwich but forgot how bad tuna makes a room smell. Especially a tin can one. Oh well, it was so worth it and delicious. Then Sianne and I played tag and had a dance party to Maxwell. Even though going to town irritated me, overall the day was really good and I even got some work accomplished in the morning :-)

First.... WELCOME TO THE WORLD DARRELL BROCKMAN III! My sister had her second baby on Monday and he was two months early so he will have to stay in the hospital for at least a month. I'm so sad I wasn't there for his birth like I did for his sister (who was also early) but now I can't wait to be greeted by two toddlers when I go home next year :-)

TIA is a common response to the many odd and annoying and sometimes humorous things that occur here. Things work differently here and getting upset about it doesn't do anything but put you in a bad mood so most things get shoved off with a sigh and a "TIA". This past weekend I wanted to meet up with some other volunteers in Kisumu for Halloween. I don't even really like Halloween in the States but it was an excuse to get together and I was all for it. Since I was on my "lets find work kick" last week, I attended the plough contest on Friday and I wasn't able to leave until Saturday. Also, Moses asked me to help teach a business and ICT (computer) class starting Monday so I knew it would be a tight weekend. Kisumu was a blast even though I only had about 24 hours in the city itself. Going there took about 5 hours, which is not too bad. Coming back on Sunday, I didn't get to the stage until 2:30, which means the matatu (van for 12-14 passengers that invariably holds no less than 20) didn't leave until 3 because heaven forbid we leave without filling each and every nook and cranny in the vehicle. TIA. We were making good time to Kericho, where I have to switch matatus for one going to Narok. That's when the fun really began. Again, I'm the first one in the matatu so I have to wait an hour for all the other passengers to come and fill up. In that time span, the hawkers are constantly coming up to the window to hassle me to buy things I don't want or need like spoons and terrible looking books. My friend Frank said he counted the number that accosted him while waiting for a matatu in Kisumu and lost track after 117. TIA. Finally, we are leaving Kericho and we get to Bomet, which is about an hour and a half away from Narok. The matatu stops in Bomet, empties and then we wait another hour for more people to fill it up. After going on the road for about 20 minutes, we ALL have to get out and switch to another matatu. Now we have so many people in the matatu that four are standing on the door ledge and are only halfway in the car. It's cold and raining but we have to ride with the door open because we can't close it with four people riding in it. Why all this switching of vehicles? TIA is the only answer I can think of.

Monday, I wake up bright and early to go to this class that I rushed from Kisumu for. I get there and 5 students are already there as well as Moses, all on time and I'm quite surprised. We set up the computers and start to talk and Moses and I get called into the head person's office. Apparently, we didn't get sufficient clearance to use the facilities and we need to consult the management committee on Thursday to make sure we have the proper permissions. So we can't really start class until NEXT Monday. Sigh. TIA. We just ended up having an introductory class where each person told us their level of computer literacy and what they wanted out of the business class.

Later in the day on Monday, I was watching The Wire (again- just as good as the first time) and hiding in my room while it was raining. All of the sudden I see a great spark from my ceiling, kind of like when a light bulb blows out but it definitely was not by my light bulb. Ummmm, scary. So like any other hard-core PCV I run in the main house and hide there until the rain stops. The next day, I could see where there was clearly a hole in the tin roof and that must be where the water is coming in. I'm no engineer but I'm pretty sure water and electrical wires don't mix. Before I could get to the bottom of it, it started raining again and now the sparks were really flying. Every few seconds fire sparks would erupt from the place where the wiring was, which is also next to the wooden beam of my roof. I ran and told my supervisor and his wife and he came in my room with a screwdriver, apparently to disconnect the wire from the wall. Again, I'm no electronics genius but I'm pretty sure if something is sparking, handling it with a metal object is not the best course of action. My supervisor's wife, Josephine AKA my bestie in Kenya, sprang into action and threw the wet sweatshirt they use to mop the floor over the hole on top of the roof. Of course this set off more sparks. Then she wanted to take it down but I convinced her to please not touch the metal roof that has electrical currents running through it somewhere. Frank was staying with me the last couple days and he and my supervisor figured out how to turn off the electricity so they could look at the problem. Apparently, the electrical tape had somehow burned through and now the wires were exposed. The water was dripping from the hole onto the exposed wires, hence the sparks. Lovely. In the end, Josephine ended up putting a piece of bubble gum in the hole to stop the water from leaking and Frank pulled the wires from the wall so they are no longer resting on the wooden beam. Clearly, I was very instrumental in helping with this potential disaster. Oh yea, you read right- bubble gum. TIA.

The rain, apart from trying to set my house on fire, also makes all of the critters come from their hiding places and try to find refuge in my sweet home. Armed with a can of Doom (the Kenyan version of RAID), I attacked hard core last night. The bottom of my walls aren't really sealed in any way to the floor so it's pretty much a great place for roaches, beetles, spiders and all of their friends to hide and stay warm and dry. Not last night. I used half the can of Doom and woke up this morning to see some bugs and their comrades laid out on the floor. But not before I saw a roach on the INSIDE of my mosquito net this morning. What did this sucker want? I don't even eat in my room! Oh well. Sigh. TIA.

The second half of last week turned out to be fairly productive and confidence-boosting. After slightly freaking out about the volunteer report form I had to fill out where I felt like I had nothing to fill out, I decided to hit the pavement- hard. Since coming back from training in Nairobi,I had a series of different visitors and officials to plan for and semi-entertain so I hadn't really had much time to find work. On Thursday,I called Sachiko and Moses to see if they knew of any groups I could work with. Sachiko said she was a little bored so I invited her over for dinner. My family loves having guests and they welcomed her, which I really appreciated because I don't really have the space in my shack to play hostess. She ended up staying the night and then we were greeted in the morning by Nia's son, Giles, making crepes! They were delicious :-) and a great way to start out a Friday.

After a great breakfast, I said good bye to Giles and Nia, who were heading back Friday evening and set out to meet some of the women in Rotian. There was a plough contest sponsored by the Ministries of Livestock and Agriculture. I had been told that they would also be exhibiting some goats so I invited the women so they could see some dairy goats but, alas, no animals were there. Except the donkeys pulling ploughs. I felt bad that I dragged the women to town and away from their jobs and didn't even have what was promised so I tried to make the best of it and snagged one of the livestock officers to answer their questions. They also got some pointers from the agriculture officer about how to make farming a business. I pounced on this opportunity and told him that I was a business advisor working in town for the next two years and I would looooove to advise some farmers on agri-business. We set up a meeting for next week, so hopefully I will get some more people to work with out of it.

On the way back into town with the women, I ran into Moses and he wanted to hang out for awhile. Usually I wouldn't have minded but I was filthy. The farm where the exhibition was was dusty and Narok itself is pretty dusty on a normal day. That day was windy and I literally had a layer of dirt/dust on my skin. Luckily I was wearing brown (and I am brown) so I didn't look too terrible but I just wanted to go home and take a bath. I'm glad I stuck around though because he took me to a friends house so I got to meet more people and also took me to see a legit business woman. She has a tailoring shop tucked away in town that I would have never found on my own and she works with many women's groups and women entrepreneurs. I also set up a meeting with her for next week. Moses also asked me to teach a computer class beginning next Monday, to which I happily agreed. It will be working with youth so I'll be able to meet some new faces and maybe start working on some youth enterprises. All in all a good day! Hopefully some of these can turn into actual working projects and I can get some sort of schedule established. Just in time for the holiday season when everyone will be doing their own thing anyway :-)

This week marked the fifth month I have been in Kenya and the third month I have been at site. I really didn't want to be one of those people who counts month-aversaries like a high school relationship but I thought it would be a good point to stop and reflect on my time here. Also, we got our first Volunteer Reporting Forms from Peace Corps and I may or may not have freaked out a bit because I felt like I didn't have anything to write on the paper. In training, we were told to always lead with accomplishments because nobody like a Debbie Downer (or Bitter Betty as is often the case with me). Thus, I present you the highs and lows of my PC experience so far:

Victo

Victories!

1. Women's group in Rotian

I have been working with several women's groups in a village Rotian, about 20km from town. OFDC provided a micro-credit loan for one group last year and they will pay their last payment next month. I am working on getting a work-able micro-credit program in place that can outlive my stay here in Kenya. On paper, there isn't much that I've "accomplished" with these women but I feel that there is now a trust between us and my sister/counterpart/translator/supervisor's wife/bestie Josephine. When I say something, they generally listen and they feel comfortable asking me questions, which I really appreciate. there's a kind of yes-ma'am culture here where people tell you they agree with something or you have a good idea but then they never do it so obviously they didn't like it. I feel like I'm getting less of this from the women.

2. Taking back my diet!

When I first came to site, it was a hard adjustment. I imagined I would be living in my own house, maybe with a guest room and sitting room and my own kitchen. Well, I live in a house that always has between 5 and 20+ people in it and all the cooking is done communally. It was hard at first to try and eat what I wanted because I had to conform to their meal times. And, even if I had already eaten in my room, if they didn't see me eat, they would make me eat again. Now, I feel more comfortable with my family here and will just tell them when I don't want something (I hate eating rice and potatoes) or when I've already eaten something. This was partially done by letting them taste a bit of what I had cooked. If they said they liked it, I told them I would make it for them. I'm still eating oatmeal alone in my room in the morning :-) Also the amount of oil and/or lard that is in every meal is just taking it's toll on me and I can't deal with it and I told them that. They think I should just get fat and marry a Kenyan. Ummm.... no thanks- Kenyan women do too much work!

3. Friends!

Even though I am super far from other PCVs, especially those in my training class, I have been able to make a few friends here at site. Two are pictured in the last post, Moses and Sachiko and there is also another volunteer working at an organization AfricaHope. There is another JAICA (Japanese PC) volunteer but I haven't met her yet, and another woman who works at a different safehouse who comes back and forth between Kenya and America. I'm estatic that many of these friends are girls because guys and girls really aren't seen as friends here. Friends pretty much equals FWB in some way. The first two months I was just hanging out with Moses and the two other PCVs in the Mara, Brian and Frank, so my town probably thought I was some loose floozy. Oh, and two of these friends have their own apartments with SHOWERS!

4. Internet and iPod

A bit of me was jealous of those PCVs in villages when I found out I would be in a 40k person town. Isn't that the whole PCV experience? Being in the bush, tucked away from society? Well, the good things about being in a town are: reliable transportation (as reliable as it can be in Kenya), access to different kinds of food (I found cucumbers the other day!), aaaaand speedy-ish internet service. Which means iTunes has been my best friend for the past month (iTunes gift cards still a great gift that needs no shipping!!!). Maybe it's a bit un-PC-like but I have been keeping up on my prime shows like Gossip Girl, The Good Wife, The Office and Modern Family. Oh and of course the podcasts- I heart Anderson Cooper and Neil Conan is my best friend I never see. Sure it takes a whole night do download one episode but when I lay in the morning under my mosquito net and listen to Michael Scott or chuckle at the ridiculousness that is Serena van der Woodson, it's like a slice of home and gives me some uuumph to get through the day. I could pretend that I didn't have access to these shows or the internet, but what's the point in that? PC is hard enough with me denying myself the small pleasures I can actually have.

5. My iPod

So, I was going to the airport on May 26 and halfway there I realize I forgot my iPod on the charging dock. Who does that?!!? We thought we didn't have enough time to go back even though my flight ended up being delayed so I totally did. At that time I was in the whole, let's not be materialistic, this is the Peace Corps frame of mind. Well, I landed in Nairobi and saw that my music had also not transferred from my Mac to my netbook. So I had no iPod and no music on my computer= NO MUSIC AT ALL! Seeing as how someone in the post office stole 6 letters to my mom and sister and 4 packets of Crystal Light someone sent me, the chances of my iPod making it from Cincinnati, Ohio to Narok, Kenya were below 0. Thankfully, my mom was able to send it to Nia, who was able to bring it with her when she came last week. Yay!!!!!!!!

6. Health

I haven't been sick yet! Well except the one day I accidentally ate a piece of meat and another day when I don't know what happened but I spent the night with my bucket. Both of these were one night occurrences that passed by morning so I don't count them but during the 12 hours when they happened I could tell that being sick here would make me very unhappy. And Josephine's dad happened to be in the room next to me that night and told me in the morning he heard me hurl. That must have been awesome for him...

Frustrations

1. Lack of personal space and privacy.

Those of you who know me, know that I like my me time and I like my space. No one in my house (except my supervisor) has ever lived on their own, alone, and they think I am crazy when I go sit in my room and read or surf the internet. I definitely try to be social but I'm usually working alone for a few hours in the day or running errands in town (I hate running errands with people) and then at night they pretty much know after I take a bath and eat dinner I'm going to my room. They think I just sleep a lot even though I told them that I go and read for a bit and then go to sleep. They seem incredulous but I just can't sit in the living room for 3 hours while the TV is on super-full blast watching terrible Nigerian movies or even more horrible Kenyan dramas. Sometimes I like to watch the English version of the news at 9 but usually by then I am in my cocoon.

2. Lack of work

Yes, I know, 2/3rds of my "job" here is supposed to be cultural exchange. I share about America and learn about Kenya. However, that in and of itself is not enough for me to spend two years away from my friends and family and out of the real work force. Part of me joined PC to have a slower pace of life and take some reflection time but a much bigger part joined to DO SOMETHING! Which means I need to DO SOMETHING! There's not much to do, or more likely, I haven't found it yet. That's not to say I haven't been looking though. I try to meet at least one new person a day, explain that I'm a business volunteer and let them know if they need any help to call me. I figured as free labor I would be highly sought after. Not so. Once they see that I'm not giving out money (with the exception of Rotian), they usually aren't interested. Part of it is that I am wary of pushing myself onto someone's business or their group. If you don't think you need accounting help, fine. You think your inventory and pricing are the best they can be, cool with me. I would think that learning how to make more money would be just as interesting as getting loan money. Oh well

3. Being out of the loop

Kenya is about 2x the size of Nevada, so a decent size when you are traveling by car all the time. PCVs are throughout the country but many are clustered in Western (about 5 hours from me) and the Coast (about 15 hours from me). The PCVs in Western get together all the time, some see other volunteers on a daily basis because they live so close. Even those who aren't clustered are usually within a 1hr walk/ bike ride from another volunteer. My closest volunteer is a 1.5hr matatu (van) ride away in Bomet, where there are 5 or 6 volunteers around each other. Although I am making do (see #3 Victory), I always feel out of the loop of what goes on with fellow PCVs. After all, the PC friendships many people make last a lifetime and I'm lucky if I get to meet up with other PCVs once a month and it costs me 1/4 of my living allowance and a full day's trip.

4. The choo

I just hate it. I don't think I will ever get used to it. It's gross and inevitably smelly no matter how you clean it because it's a hole in the ground filled with people's waste.

So, all in all, the victories seem to be outweighing the frustration even though it doesn't feel that way on a daily basis. I constantly wonder what the heck I am doing here and if me being here will actually make any difference. I have had some moments where I didn't want to be here, as in at site, but I haven't yet had a period of time where I wanted to get on a plane and go back home. They say the first three months are the hardest so I'm putting a lot of stock in November!

Sorry for the long post!

Sachiko and Moses with the ostrich egg

Kids cutting the grass at a school- Dad if you had to mow the lawn this way, would you still enjoy yard work so much?

Sianne, my best friend in Kenya and my Swahili teacher, imitating me reading on my couch

Giles, Moses and I drilling into the egg

My Swahili is fast out-pacing Maasai, the local language I spent 8 hours a day learning in training. This is mostly because the family I live with is made up of a Maasai mom and a Kikuyu dad so they teach the daughter (2 years) Swahili. Anyhow, whenever you are gone for more than a couple days and you see someone, they say to you "Umepotea", which means "you have been lost." The first time someone said that to me I was, understandably, confused. No, I haven't been lost- I've known where I was all along! And, usually the other person did too because I have said, Oh I'll be in Nairobi for two weeks so I won't see you for awhile. But, I didn't tell you guys what's been going on for the last three weeks so I guess I really have been nimepotea.

Things at site are the usual up and down. I posted some lyrics from one of my favorite movies, The Wiz, on facebook and they are so relevant to me this week that I'll put them again here...

"Cause there may be times when you think you lost your mind and the steps you're takin' leave you three more steps behind. But the road you're walkin' might be long sometimes, you just keep on steppin' and you'll be just fine"

That pretty much sums up PC life, for me at least. Also, I realize that I have been quite remiss in talking about life in general here. I have talked quite a bit about the work I've been doing and my silence has generally been because of lack of aforementioned work. But you guys don't want to hear about just work work work right? So I will try to infuse a bit more of the everyday in these ramblings, ahem, I mean posts.

Starting with... the ostrich egg party! There is a JAIKA (Japanese equivalent of Peace Corps) volunteer who lives not too far from me. Funny how my worlds collide. We met through a mutual friend when he was on his way to a medical camp. At the medical camp, she bought an ostrich egg from a villager so we thought, why not have a party and cook it? Nia, the director of our donor organization OFDC and her son Giles (also a former Japanese student!) are here for two weeks to check on all of the projects they have funded for my organization. So, after a week of looking at latrines, water wells, and crazy kids, I invited them to come along with me to Sachiko's place. We picked up some chapati and chips and then the fun really began. Our only Kenyan representation, the mutual friend Moses, was the only one of us with ostrich egg cracking experience. Those shells are hard! We had to drill a hole because Sachiko wanted to keep the empty shell and have it decorated with beads. So, there we sat, taking turns drilling a hole with a knife and subsequently blowing out the insides. Best Friday night in a long time (not even being sarcastic!). I cooked up the egg, which is the equivalent of about 2 dozen chicken eggs, and then we all sat around Sachiko's place and just chatted about development, women's rights, why we all love our countries, and other random topics. What does ostrich egg taste like? I thought it was pretty good, but a bit yolky compared to a chicken egg.

Other than that, it has been slow going work wise. I went to a school today and volunteered to teach their business class next term (January) and I am trying to get a dairy goat cooperative going with some of the women's groups. Also, the girls come back in a couple weeks and I want to do a mini holiday camp with them, so we will see how that goes. I know that seems like a lot but most of the things I have to do involve a lot of waiting and then a meeting and then more waiting... I read a whole book on Sunday which I thought I would stretch out to last the week so now I'm blogging and bored!

THANK YOU MELANIE for my birthday package! We made the cake with the frosting as soon as I got it. One of my housemates, Alice, had never had frosting and they ate the whole tube even thought I told them it would make them sick! Also, reading Kaffir Boy (great pick!) rejuvenated my reasons for being here and trying to make a difference, even when I feel I am failing miserably. Love you and miss you!

Even though we lost the game (no surprise) still going to give a shout out to Columbia homecoming. Roar lions roar!!!

Ok, I haven't read Stones into Schools, but I have read Three Cups of Tea, and I shared some of Greg Mortenson's frustrations yesterday. Thankfully, I did not share the experience of being held hostage or having to deal with anti-American sentiment. Doing business here in Kenya, however, is never a cake walk. Our organization receives funding from OFDC to do a number of projects, one being providing choos (latrines) for schools around the district. Imagine being in elementary school and not having a place to go to the bathroom (well, other than the bush)? The issue is compounded even more for girls, who, once they get towards the end of elementary school really need a place to go to the bathroom. We have been budgeting for six locations and the first location has been rife with difficulties. Shady contractors, lazy builders, difficult oversight- it's hard to keep an eye on a project 100km away. Also, being the first project, there were many lessons to be learned about cost, efficiency, and motivation. Yesterday we went to purchase the materials for the second latrine project, about 2 hours north of Narok.

The Plan:

Purchase materials, hire a truck, pick up materials, take them and drop them off at the site, take before pictures, arrive home.

What really happened:

My supervisor and I left to purchase materials in town around 10AM. Lesson learned #1 from the first project is find a hardware store that has ALL of the supplies you need. Check. I checked the materials against the list of things we needed (lesson #2: Builders never tell you all the materials you need on the first project. Keep a list so the next time you have everything you need before they start building). After checking around following the first project, we were able to save a bit of money on some of the materials. So far so good.

Next on the list was to buy timber, which meant a trip to the other side of this dusty town and get pelted by woodchips from the carpenters working. Oh, did I mention I was wearing my contacts for the first time at site? Good choice Meg. We need to find 3 types of timber and one type we can only see at the bottom of a stack of tons of lumber. Hmmm... We keep looking and find some. After agreeing on a price (3600 shillings), my supervisor gives her 4000 shillings and she brings back the receipt for me. I ask, "Wapi changi?' (where's the change?). She says there is no change; we must have heard her wrong, the lumber is 4000 shillings, not 3600. Yea, those sound soooo similar. I begin to see my supervisor's heart rate climb and me, being a "that's not fair" American start to protest. Why should we get ripped off here? We'll just take our business elsewhere. But, having dealt with these things his whole life, my supervisor tells me that there's nothing we can do because, "That's how things are done in Kenya." If you go somewhere else, you will likely get ripped off there as well. Humph.So that's what happened to the budget last time. Lesson #3: Always carry small bills so you can give exact change.

By now it's noon and the sun is blazing- even my supervisor is complaining about the heat. I'm famished and am elated when he suggests we eat lunch while waiting for the wood to be sanded. In the meantime, he has been trying to get in touch with the truck driver all morning. While at lunch, he finally gets him on the line and they agree to meet after lunch. We eat and then go to meet the owner of the truck, which has a flat. They claim it's not a puncture, just the air pressure because the nozzle wasn't on tight enough. Mmmmhmmm. They fill it with air and off we go to the quarry. Oh yea, it's still hot and dusty and we are riding down a buuummmmpppppyyy road in the interior to the quarry to get ballast. When we left town, the workers said they would load the ballast into the back of the lorry for 500 shillings. When we get to the quarry, that figure has magically jumped up to 800 shillings. And, the woman working in the quarry tells us that, even though we asked for 2 tonnes of ballast, she has set aside 3 tonnes, so we need to pay for three tons. I try to crack jokes to calm my supervisor down even though I fear he just might fall out in the sun any moment. Those fears are allayed since it's now 2PM and the sky is darkening. Oh, afternoon rain shower, hello! It takes the workers an hour to load the ballast (now we are 3:30pm) and I'm wondering how we are possibly going to make it to this school today??? My supervisor is hopeful. We leave the quarry but not before the police stop us because you have to pay 200 shillings to the government whenever you remove something from the quarry. Even though the receipt just says 200 shillings, they claim it's supposed to be 200 shillings per ton

. Really? We have three tonnes so we should pay 600 shillings but, if we just give them 50 shillings they'll call it even. Woo-saa!!!!

It's approaching 5PM and we are just getting back to town. And it's pouring. We load the timber first and then go to get the cement and the rest of the materials but the truck is open on top so we need a cover. We go back to the hardware store and count and check off each item that is going on the truck. It's still raining and the roads become impassable outside of town when it rains so we decide to park the truck overnight and take it at 6AM. My supervisor could tell I had had my fill of Kenyan economics so he said he would go alone today. When I called him at 9:30, they still had not reached the schools. It was raining all night and I'm sure the roads are bad. Pole bwana. We are in for a long road ahead. This was only purchasing the materials- we still have to stay on the workers and make sure they complete the latrine in a timely fashion and produce quality work. And then learn more lessons and apply them to projects 3, 4, 5, and 6.

Want to help provide latrines for children? Consider donating to OFDC for A Mission with a Vision and we'll do the heavy lifting :-)

THANK YOU TO MOM, DAD, TRACY, JR, TALIBAH AND MELANIE! Judging by my smile, the people at the post office probably thought I was picking up liquid gold out of the PO Box. Well, candy, magazines and a sweatshirt are like gold to me :-) Also, you are totally promoting goals 2&3 of Peace Corps (cross-cultural exchange). Example: While looking through Lucky, my supervisor's wife, Josephine, pointed to a GAP ad showing ripped jeans and asked, "Who would buy these ripped?" Just one more reason they think Americans are crazy. It was also great for them to see Essence and Ebony as proof that there are black Americans- we have whole magazines dedicated to them!

Wildebeest

Black Rhino

Wildebeest migration with savannah backdrop

That's a leopard in the tree

Full album coming when I'm in Nairobi next week!

This is actually in the park, a bunch of wildebeest

One of the "main roads" in Sekenani

The view of Brian's community from his compound

Narok town view, across the street from the stage

Cows taking over the road in Narok, a daily occurrence

The first three months, that has been more of a question than a statement or exclamation. But, over the past few weeks Narok has started to feel more like home.

Monday: brownies

I didn't have anything planned for this Monday so another PCV, Brian, suggested I visit his site. We share the same supervisor (even though we are 3 hours away from each other) and I will be trying to fund raise for his site as well so I figured, why not? Plus, he has a friend who drives people into the Maasai Mara Game Reserve and he said he would take us for free= free safari! However, I got to the matatu (Nissan vans that act as the Kenyan version of the Greyhound) stage and all of the vehicles to the Mara were full. But, since I live here, there's no rush so I figured I would go home and hang out. I get home and decide to make brownies. This necessitated it's own project since I had to "bake" something using my kerosene jiko (stove). How does one do this? I took a big sufuria (pot) and put it on top of the stove, put a few stones on the bottom of the pot and then put the pan with the brownies on it on top of the stones. Then I covered the big sufuria with a lid and a wet towel to insulate the heat. It worked in the sense that they baked and they tasted delicious but they baked into a funny shape and ended up looking like a pile of cow dung. Graciously, my family here didn't let looks set them back and ate them anyway and I guess they liked them because I went in the house yesterday and only crumbs were left on the plate.

Tuesday: safari

But, I digress... While I was making the brownies, Brian called and told me he found me a ride! Apparently, the guy who offered to take us into the park was travelling from Narok to the Mara that afternoon and he said he would come pick me up. So I got a free ride, which, after some pricey weekends last month, I definitely appreciated. After two hours down a bumpy dirt road and after passing a family of elephants, some zebra, and tons of gazelles, I arrived at Brian's. What a difference. I live in a town and he lives, quite literally, in the bush. Well, actually it's a pretty dry area so there aren't many bushes to speak of but you get the drift. I'll put some pictures up of his site and mine and you will see the difference. He is about 200m away from the Sekenani Gate into the park, which is the main gate. Tuesday morning I walked around his village with him, greeting and talking with various people who were all wondering why the white guy is walking with the black woman, why they are so far from the tourist lodges, and where the hell we were going. We tried to explain that no, we aren't married, yes, we are both from America, and we were just walking. To people with a load of firewood or water on their back, this understandably made no sense. After the "tour" of Sekenani, consisting of tons of bars, a few "restaurants", some small dukkas (store stalls), the cyber cafe, and the county council area, we sat and waited for Lefty, our friend/guide. He came and took us into the park for about 3 hours, it was awesome. First, you see the deleterious effects of overgrazing clearly. Around Brian's compound there's barely any grass but in the park just a bit away it looks like a true Savannah. I came at the end of the wildebeest migration, so when we looked out into the distance you could see lines and lines of wildebeest. The other highlights of the safari were: a leopard in a tree, a lion walking right next to our car, lots of zebra and gazelles, some ostrich, and one of about 3,000 black rhinos left in the world. A good day indeed.

Wednesday: Olikirkirai

Wednesday it was back to work. We were going to Olikirikirai (about 50km N of Narok) to meet with a women's group but it coincided with National Literacy Day so I got to meet the chief, DO, area counsellor, Ass. Chief, and a bunch of other people I should have met a month ago. 2 birds, one stone. Oh, I forgot. In order to get back to Narok from the Mara I had to wake up at 5am to catch the matatu (they only leave in the morning) but we did do some great star gazing: Orion's belt, some galaxies, Jupiter, and a bunch of other stars Brian pointed out to me that I forgot. On the bumpy three hour ride back sitting by bags of maize or potatoes or who knows what, a giraffe came right in front of the matatu! I got back to the house about 8, had a breakfast of Kenyan pancakes, and left for Olikirkirai around 10. It started raining at the end of the Literacy Day program, around 3pm so we met with the women and then tried to catch a ride back to Narok. It took about 30 minutes walking down the muddy road in the rain before a car came, which they then packed full of people and vegetables. (Sidenote: I now play a game called, how much can you fit in a car? So far the record is 12 people but this was a close second with 8 people and 8 bags of veggies). At 7PM, my supervisor and I arrived back in town and I was exhausted in the best way possible and starving. I hadn't eaten since breakfast that morning! Home, dinner, two wine spritzers and 3 episodes of Sex and the City later, I was asleep.

Thursday: Rrotian

Yesterday was another full day. OFDC has provided loan money for 6 women groups but we have to do home assessments for all interested loan applicants to ensure they really are needy. Yesterday was home assessment day 2 of 5 in Rrotian, which meant more walking in the hot sun, more chai and chapati and failing to understand any more than 10% of the Maasai spoken. Luckily Josephine, my supervisor's wife and my unofficial counterpart, was there to translate. I asked them a bunch of question about their lives, families, homes, businesses and their community. It was worth it though, when at the end of the day one woman thanked me for coming and said no one had ever been to their homes or asked about their problems. Intangible rewards.

Today I am going to finally get some statistics I have been after for a month and then going to Naivasha to look at a group do some briquette making, a possible IGA (income generating activity) for some of the women's groups. Tomorrow I am going to one of the first senators of Kenya's house to meet his grand-daughters and family and I'm going to try and make pizza. Sunday it's off to Nairobi!!!!!

Happy Eid al Fitr to all my Muslim friends! Fasting in August had to have been haaaaard, feast well!

The blog waves have been quiet over here, partly because not much has been going on and partly because I was in a funk and I didn't want to just come on and vent. So, I waited until I got through it a bit before I blogged. That first month was HARD. You hear how your first 3-6 months in the Peace Corps are difficult, but knowing doesn't make it any less difficult. I was frustrated for a multitude of reasons, but then I took a couple escape weekends and came back ready to deal with it. My first boss at LB always told me: Don't come to me with a problem if you don't have a solution. That's probably the censored version of his sentence but you get the point: there's no use in complaining if you aren't going to do anything to change it. So, I came back last weekend recharged and refreshed. Some days are still frustrating, like Friday when I didn't leave the house all day but I made up for it yesterday and today.

Saturday I went to see the big market at Rotian, one of the villages I am working with. They have a market on Tuesday and Saturday, but the one on Saturday draws a big crowd from neighboring villages. I wish I could have taken a picture so you guys can get an idea of what "big" is, (this ain't the Farmer's Market in Union Square) but people were already looking at me like I was crazy just for being there walking around so I didn't want to attract any extra attention. I don't know if they stare because they know I'm a foreigner or just because they know I'm not Maasai.

After leaving the village, I went back to town and hung out at my one of my favorite restaurants. I met another CBO (community based organization) worker and he invited me to take a walk Sunday. I was so estatic to find a Kenyan I could speak English with at regular speed, complete with euphemisms, who could also translate Swahili and Maasai to people around me that there was no way I was turning that invitation down. I met with him today and he said we were walking 10km (about 6 miles). I figure I used to run 6 miles frequently, walking shouldn't be a problem. Two hours later (why do I always end up walking in 2 hour increments?) he pointed out the town we were going to waaaaaay off in the distance. We both looked at each other and thought it best to turn around. Along the way we met an 11 year old boy who gave us some laughs. He had heard us speaking English so he asked where I was from. I told him, in Maasai, that I live in Narok but I am from America. First he said it can't be true and then asked why my hair wasn't like a white persons. Laughing, I told him, because I'm not white and he replied that I wasn't black enough to be Kenyan. I think he didn't know what category to put me in but he was happy to show off the little English he had learned in school. He took us to his house so my friend could get some water and then we headed the two hours back home. Including the times we stopped, this walk went from noon- 5PM, meaning I missed lunch and I had only had about 1/2 a liter of water. Bad decision on my part.

My plan was to come home, cook up some ramen really quickly (don't judge me!) and then relax till dinner time. But, the girls asked me did I want to help them cook chapati and of course I said sure. They cook for me all the time so any time they let me help out, I take it as a sign that they are thinking of me more as a family member and not a guest. After rolling out about 20 pieces of chapati dough, I felt a little lightheaded and thought I would get some water. Yea, so I never made it past the corridor. I have never fainted in my life and doing it in front of a house full of girls who wash clothes, dishes, watch children, fetch water, cook, and clean from dawn till evening was not where I would have chosen. But, they all surrounded me, brought me water, and made sure I was ok, which was a great feeling. So fam, rest assured, I'm certainly not out here on my own.

This week the rest of the girls return to school and the house will seem a little too quiet without them here. I can't say I will miss the band practice in front of my door from 10am-lunch time but I will miss seeing all of the girls every day. This week I am going to Maasai Mara to see the other PCV in my organization and the wildebeest migration on a "safari" and then I will meet more women's groups, which is exciting. Next week is back to Nairobi for In Service Training which means friends, pizza, sushi, movies, and the demise of my bank account!

Some funny things:

There are more churches here than a block in Harlem. One of the ones on the way into town is, "Jesus the Fountain of Life Church Total Transformation Center House of Worship". Not lying.

The grocery store (and various other places) sells copies of movies but they put like 6-10 movies on one disk. Included in this collection was "Black American Super Movies No. 4": Game Over, Corrupted Minds, Get Rich or Die Tryin, POETIC JUSTICE, Confessions of a Thug, Out of Time, Rude Boy, Dance Hall Queen, Third World, JUICE, CITY OF GOD, Shottas, Rollin' with the Nines, Waist Deep, Jacked up, and BELLY. I have to disagree with some of their definitions of Super Movies but looks like 125th street needs to step up their movie game...

Thanks Trenita for my bday package! Can't wait until Peanut comes!

Thanks Dad, Tracy and Jr for my Amazon gift card. I'm blowing through books here...

Thanks Mom and Aja for my letters and pictures and thanks to all those who email/ check up on facebook- it really means a lot! The rest of you...ahemmmmm.....

Relativitiy:

By American standards, I am poor. Here in Kenya, however, myself and the family I live with are probably squarely in the middle class. I came to this realization on Sunday, while eating (and enjoying) a lunch of rice and potatoes. Sunday lunches are notoriously starch heavy. For most households, Sunday is the only day of “rest” for women and/or househelp. They go to church and fix an easy lunch and dinner. And, if you remember from the previous post, church can be a full-time job's worth of hours on a Sunday. So, when we got home at 3PM, the girls cooked up what was easiest and most filling. Yesterday I went on house visits to a women's group in Rotian, a village about 20km away from my town. Rotian is one of the two villages I will be working closely with during my two years. This group is the pilot for the micro-finance project with my organization and OFDC. OFDC is a top donor for MWV; they provide sponsorships for many of the children, have built water wells at the safehouse and some schools, fund women's trainings like the one I attended last month, installed the electricity in the safehouse and provide uniforms and various other things for sponsored children. Their budget is small but they make it stretch! Rotian village was selected last year and, after looking through many proposals, one group was selected to receive the loan money. Yesterday, I got to see how the loan has changed their lives. Here are just a few highlights:

Out of the 6 women:

*All of them were very hospitable, making us drink chai (tea) and some sort of food before moving on to the next home :-)

*2 have never gone to school, 1 has gone through second grade, 1 through freshman year of high school, and 2 have completed 2 years of college.

*The nearest primary school is 1-2 hours away, depending on where in the village you live

*The nearest hospital is 20km away. The women told me when someone is hurt they carry them in lesos (sheets of fabric usually used as a wrap skirt) to the hospital. There is a dispensary in the village, but it is private and expensive.

*All the women must walk around 3km each day to fetch water for the household and for crops.

*Only one woman had a choo (latrine) on her land. The rest either use hers or the bush, whichever is closest.

*The average number of children is 4.6

*Half of the women are in a polygamous marriage

The number of children and multiple wives add up to a bad combination for many of these women. When there is a drought (like last year) or not enough food to go around, the girls end up being married off, usually after 8th grade. When there are multiple wives, one is usually favored and if that wife isn't you, guess who's girls get married off first?

So how has this small loan (around $300 per woman) helped them? The women told me that before the loan they had to depend on their husbands for food and school fees. Most of them farmed on their own shambas (farms) and sold what they didn't eat. When times are good, time are good. But when they are bad, if the crop gets destroyed (like a lot of wheat did last year) or the rains are late, the results can be disastrous. The loan has helped them learn basic business skills and also to buy more nutritious food for their children and pay for school fees. One woman is saving for a tin roof; her current home is made of cow dung and thatched grass. All of them are interested in how to open a bank account to save for hard times. I know micro-finance is the “sexy” word of the decade, but that's in large part because it can work. There are many micro-finance institutions (MFIs) in town but they charge high fees and interest and are targeted toward people who are already engaging in some sort of business. Some require a cow as collateral. These are women who don't own any property and 10-20% interest would eat up any profit they were able to make. The project with OFDC is targeting the very poor of the poor, women who have no other avenues of financial services. For this one group of 6 women, there were at least 30 other women that I met yesterday who wanted the same opportunity, and I'm sure tons of others who I didn't get a chance to meet. If you would like to help, send me an email!

The rest of the week has been business as usual. There is now a music teacher here to teach the girls trumpet, trombone, and drums. So, the house is somewhat of an “orchestra” until noon each day. The girl's and I had a photo shoot on Saturday, pics coming soon. Today I am going to a women's conference in town. Someone asked me about reading and, yes, I do a lot of it. Not as many as some but here's a list of what I've read so far:

*1984- one should not read this while taking Mephalquin (malaria meds that can cause hallucinations and nightmares). You've been warned.

*Their Eyes Were Watching God- I had read it back in middle school but it was better the second time around.

*The Street- Great pick by Melanie that she has been trying to get me to read since senior year of college.

*44 Scotland Street- by the same author who wrote No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. Pass.

*Three Cups of Tea- Read it! Inspiring.

I'll take any of your suggestions as well!

Things have been busy and not busy at the same time; my life has become full of contradictions like that. Last Saturday we held a training for women in a village called Ololunga. My organization holds a training every other month where they talk to women about children's rights, HIV/AIDS, family planning- and now that I'm here- business/ microcredit. I understood virtually nothing because it was all in KiSwahili but I did manage to introduce myself in KiSwahili. Afterwards, my supervisor told them that I would be working as a business advisor for the next two years and they all seemed very excited. The training was held at an elementary school and most of the women have small children so at the end the women were given mosquito nets to take home.

I titled this work and "work" because a lot of what we do as volunteers is informal and not what I would have considered a couple of years ago to be work. Here, however, it is the majority of our jobs. Peace Corps has three goals:

1) To help people of interested countries meet their needs for trained men and women.

2)To help promote a better understanding of the American people on the part of the people served.

3) To promote a better understanding of other people on the part of the American people.

As you can see, cultural exchange is 2/3 of my job here. Here are some examples of that "work"

Black Americans?

As a black American, I usually cause some head scratching among Kenyans. First is the understanding that I'm actually an American- that I was born there and my family has lived there for generations. Sometimes they will grant me the fact that I am an American citizen but will insist I'm not a real American. If they can grasp the concept that I'm American they are still confused as to why I can't speak KiSwahili. This one I don't really understand the confusion because it's only in East Africa that people speak KiSwahili so the idea that someone is the same skin color as you but speaks something different shouldn't be all that difficult. Usually it is easier to get this idea through to them if I am with other (white) PCVs. However, while I was waiting for my furniture to be finished the other day, one of the carpenters started down the, "You are American?" line of questioning. He also told me that it is hard for people to get along in Kenya because there are 42 different tribes. (sidenote: I have also frequently gotten the question, "How many tribes are there in America?") I started to explain to him that there are many different types of people in America and we all get along (relatively) peacefully.

So in America...

This is how many conversations begin once someone finds out I am American. The popular mindset is that Americans are all rich, drive everywhere, and have machines to do everything. And that we all live in metropolises. To a certain extent, and definitely if you are looking at things in a relative context, this may be true but we do have our fair share of poor Americans and America doesn't just look like one big version of Manhattan (though it would be nice if it did!). So I share with people that we do have farms and some people also can't afford to pay their electric bill, etc...

9-5

Just as an example of how work here can hide in strange places, I was called upon to go to church today. Now, I had attended church last week and thought that I would just go once in the name of cultural exchange. I didn't really have a choice this time though so at 9am I left the house with 11 girls to walk to church. Two hours later we arrived. Then I sat through 3 1/2 hours of singing (which I enjoy for the first hour) and preaching (which I never understand because it's in KiSwahili and Maasai). When we left "early" as we were heading into the fourth hour of service, we then had to go to someone's house for lunch because they didn't want to send us back all that way without food. So at 5PM, we finally arrived back at home. Initially, I was not pleased that my Sunday had been hijacked against my will but it ended up being a good opportunity to speak with the girls more closely and for them to get to know me better. Also, the pastor at the church we attended was interested in getting a business training together. So, in the end, it was an unexpected workday but a good one nonetheless.

So...training ended and we were off to Nairobi. After two months of ugali& cabbage, my tastebuds immediately went into sensory overload. Everything is at least 5x more expensive in Nairobi but that didn't stop us from immediately gorging on pizza, chinese food, cocktails, sushi, tacos, and anything else we were craving. We also spent way too many hours in Nakumatt, a mix between a Wal-mart and a Target. On Wednesday July 21, we were sworn in at the ambassador's house and feasted on Doritos and mini pizzas to celebrate becoming official volunteers. Classy & yummy. Then on Thursday we all split in our separate directions to our new homes for the next two years.

In the previous post I stated that there is no stereotypical "Peace Corps" experience. Only a handful of the 36 in our group have what people think of when they think Peace Corps: mud huts, no running water or electricity, small villages. Most have nicer accomodations than they had in the US and I would say the majority of our group has access to electricity and water. My town, Narok, is a legit town of about 40,000 people. It is the last stop to get fuel or food before heading 100km into Maasai Mara- the great wildlife reserve which stretches to the Serengeti in Tanzana.

As far as work, I have a few primary projects. As I said in a previous post, the house that I live in is a safehouse for girls that have escaped early marriage and/or female circumcision. Most students in Kenya attend boarding school in secondary (high) school, so the girls are only here when school is out. Also, the school system here is a rotation of 3 months of school followed by a 2-4 week break. August is a break month so the girls are here now, taking the total to about 22 in the house. The head of the organization, who is my supervisor, also lives in the house with his 2 year old daughter and wife. They have been extremely welcoming and I'm excited for our work together the next two years. My actual "house" is a 12x12 room outside of the main house. I will post a video but I have managed to fit into this small space a kitchen, living room, bedroom, office, and occasional bathroom. Thankfully I haven't had any issues with wild animals or creepy crawlers but we do have two guard dogs who are only out at night and one of them got into my room yesterday and chewed through my mosquito net. Fun.

So far I haven't done much with the girls, partly because there is a significant language barrier. I was taught Maasai in training but since this is a town with many different tribes, most people speak KiSwahili. I'm working on it though. We play a lot of card games and I'm going to try to make a Kenyan version of the game of LIFE. Also, any suggestions on activities and games for high school age girls are most welcome.

My other projects so far are working with a woman's group on microcredit and helping with trainings for women on rights, family planning, health and business. I have my first training tomorrow and I was supposed to meet the woman's group on Tuesday but I will be going to Nairobi. They are voting on a new constitution next Wednesday so as a precaution my area (Lower Rift Valley) is being consolidated to Nairobi for one week. Bring on the pizza!!!

OK, now that I have caught up on the blog I will try to post more frequently so I can give better experiences instead of just a recap. Tutaoana! (see you later)

We finished up training in Loitoktok (LTK) about a week and a half ago and I have been meaning to write a post ever since. I will split up my thoughts into two different posts- training and swearing in/site- to save you guys the pain of reading a horrendously long post.

It really was a bit sad to say bye to the LTK, our home for the last two months and our official welcome place to Kenya. I bonded really well with my host family and I will miss my mama's cooking and chatting with my brother and his bomb chapati. My training project also ended quite nicely. Myself and another business volunteer were partnered with a nascent (that's for you Adam) group who wanted to sell eggs. Well, at first they wanted to be a middleman buyer/seller of eggs but there was no money in that. Then they wanted to raise chickens but that was going to take a long time. In the end, they ended up raising funds internally, buying chickens, and getting a few eggs. Sadly, two of the chickens we bought were menopausal, i.e. they were no longer laying eggs, but they were able to "return" them and look for new chickens. At our closing ceremony with our partner groups, our group presented us with traditional Maasai jewlery, which was completely unexpected and greatly appreciated. Unfortunately, my first necklace was too small for my head so they had to exchange it for me (stop laughing Aja!).

A few notes about training for those reading who may be about to embark on this Peace Corps journey themselves... Bring clothes you like. We were told to dress modestly- skirts knee length or below and collared shirts. This, however, does not mean that you have to be dowdy. It's better to bring less clothes but clothes you actually like to wear than to have an assortment but you don't feel like yourself in them. Remember, you are going to be meeting people and working in them for two years- it's worth it to bring a couple of pieces that you just feel great when you put them on.

That ties into the second point: Just because you are in the Peace Corps doesn't mean you have to (insert stereotype here). You can be a girly girl and still be a great Peace Corps Volunteer. Or a gadget guy. Or whatever it is that you identify with. A fellow PCV had a rough day a few weeks back and she went home, did a full face of makeup and sat and watched some mindless American TV for a few minutes, washed it all off and felt tons better. Even though you are here, you are still YOU! There's no typical PCV or PC experience so the things that comfort you at home will probably comfort you here.

Which brings me to my next point: packing. I stressed over packing before I left. First, you only have a little bit of time to prepare (I had one month) and second, you just have no freakin idea what to pack. My suggestion: reach out to a current PCV in your country. If you are coming to Kenya, pack light! You can find just about anything your little heart desires in Nairobi and other parts of the country. I would bring enough toiletries to get you through training and then just buy what you need in country (why did I bring 4 toothbrushes???). If you want to know if something is here, just ask! As far as clothes- quick dry (especially undies) are a worthwhile investment. Stick to dark/earth colors (black, brown, green) because you will get dirty and washing clothes isn't just as simple as throwing things in the machine. Oh and bring an extra empty duffel bag. You will work so hard to pack everything for the next two years and just have it fit in your suitcases, only to get a bundle of papers, manuals, handbooks, and medical supplies from Peace Corps. On the same note- don't bother bringing first aid/medical supplies unless it's prescription or very specific. Peace Corps Medical hooks you up with everything from asprin to pepto bismol to vitamins to hand sanitizer. For all those on the path to PC, I hope this helps. Feel free to ask any questions if you have them.

Sorry if that was boring for the rest of you but a RPCV helped me pack and it was invaluable. All in all, it was a great two months in the LTK. Other than the DUST! I would walk outside a by the time I reached class, my feet and legs were two different colors. When I washed clothes the water would immediately turn brown when I put my skirts in because of all the dust. And, anytime a car or pikipiki (motorbike) drove by, forget about it. Eat my dust became a literal daily activity. I will miss looking at Mt. Kilimanjaro every day and watching her become covered by clouds. But most of all, I will miss seeing my new Peace Corps family every day...

Yesterday I cooked an entire meal for my family by myself. Ordinarily this would be no big feat. It wasn't even anything elaborate (spaghetti and spinach). However, nothing is quite as simple as it would be at home here. First, let me just say I love my mama teKenya. She knows I hate cooking so most days I get by with just helping chop vegetables and setting the table. But, this past weekend my broter cooked me lunch and I am trying show him reciprocity and that gender roles don't have to be pre-determined so I decided to cook two of his favorites for dinner Monday. If I were cooking this in America, what would I do? Put two pots on the stove, one for the spaghetti and one for the spinach and start a pan for the sauce. Thirty mintues later, we would be eating. Let's see how things are a bit different here:

1) The "kitchen". Our kitchen is a wooden shack in front of the main house. There is a dirt floor, a bench, a wooden stump (for sitting by the fire), three cinderblocks under which the wood is burned and a cupboard with various dishes and utensils. So, the first thing I have to do is start the fire. I am not good at this and it gives my family hours of amusement to watch me try. Ok, now the fire is going but I can only put one pot on at a time...

2) Space. There's no cutting board or island or counter to set things on. I chopped the spinach just with it in my hands (you cut into your hand- directly contrary to all knife admonitions from childhood) into a plastic bowl and chopped the onions directly into the pan with oil.

3) Convenience. After I put the spinach in the pot I realized I needed some water to cook it down. I have to go around back of the house to the water tank and fill up a bucket. Oh, the water bucket has leftover milk from the cow in it. Now I have to wash the bucket and then fill it up with water. And quickly before the spinach burns. Ok, the spinach is now simmering, time to start the spaghetti.

4) The stove. My family uses a combination of wood-burning fire and a charcoal stove (jiko) to cook. So we light the jiko, fill it with charcoal and set a pot of water on there to boil for the spaghetti. In the meantime the spinach is cooking too fast...

5)Temperature control. Part of the difficulty in cooking here is you never know what temperature you are at. There is no oven telling you 350 degrees, no burner to set to hi-med-low. When it's too hot, you take a log out. Not enough heat? Add some more wood!

6) Vision. It gets dark between 6:45 and 7 here and I get home at 6:30 so there is only a bit of a window when I can actually see what I'm cooking. I try to use the kerosene lamp to peer over the pot but then I get a blast of heat and smoke and I can't see anything. I spent about 30 minutes crying in the kitchen between the onions and the smoke :-( This also is amusing to my mama because of course it doesn't bother her eyes. She also doesn't use anything to remove pots from the fire half the time.

All in all, the meal turned out well. The spaghetti got a little overcooked because I was trying to get the sauce together and couldn't get to the jiko for a couple of minutes to check on it. And the sauce was a bit bland because I only had onion, tomatoes, tomato paste, and salt to work with. Garlic and cilantro are available but only on market days (Saturday and Tuesday). My family liked it (at least they said they did) and they ate it so I call that a success!

This is a story from when we first arrived a month ago, but amusing nonetheless. Those of you who know me are well aware that I have zero sense of direction. People always find that difficult to believe because I lived in NYC for seven years. However, New York is on a grid with numbers that tell you if you are going north or south, east or west. It is also true that I have managed to find my way around other cities in this world, a couple of them with different character alphabets (Japanese and Arabic). At least these places had streets! Not so much in Loitoktok. There is a "main street" that passes through town but there aren't any signs to let you know you are on it. So, imagine my fear: me, the girl who still gets lost in my hometown of Cincinnati, when the first day of class we had to find our way home. My mama had walked me to class in the morning and it was our second day in town so I didn't know which other trainees lived on my same "road". Coming home, we left from a different place than we started so I set off just waiting ot get lost. I started walking along the road I thought went to my house and ran into another PCTs (Peace Corps Trainee's) baba.

Me: Do you know where the K... house is?

Him: Oh yes. Don't take this road. Take that one. And then follow the road to the eucalyptus trees.

Me: Ummm... which ones are the eucalyptus trees?

Him: Those-there!

Me: Oooh ok. And then what?

Him: Cross the river and keep straight.

Now at this point I feel I may never get home because I know for certain that I didn't pass any water this morning.

Me: Is there water in the river?

Him: No, no. It is dry. Just cross it and walk to the eucalyptus trees and you will be there!

Funny thing is, I followed his directions and pretty much made it home :-) And, that is largely how directions are given here. We had to draw a map for PC of how one would get from town to our homestays (in case of medical emergency) and I just drew a big tree next to my house because that is the only way to identify it. If you ask someone in town how to get to the hospital, they might tell you to walk to the petrol station, climb the cliff, turn left at the yellow house, etc etc. We only have a couple more weeks in Loitoktok so don't worry, I'm sure there will be plenty more tales of me getting lost when I go to site!

World Cup fever has taken over the continent and an hour doesn't go by that I don't hear the Shakira theme song. The funny thing is, sometimes I feel further from it than if I were in the States. For instance, last Saturday we were all excited to watch the afternoon games, unfortunately the whole town of Loitoktok had no stima (electricity) from 10am until about 5:30PM. We have a 6:30PM curfew, so that kind of cut that party short. Our curfew is every day so after training we usually go to a bar to watch the 5PM game but I only get to see it until halftime. A lot of people finish the game at home but since we have no electricity in my house, hence no television, I'm usually out of the loop until the next day. We have fun cheering on the African teams (as long as our families cheer for USA!) and listening to Shakira. All in all, life in Kenya is going pretty well. Here are a few things from the week:

Pending Issues

There are only three people (myself included) in my language class and the other two are boys. It is technically supposed to be language and cross-cultural training so the boys have compiled a list of things they want to experience relating to the Maasai tribe during training. My teacher named these "pending issues":

1) Making fire with just sticks (no matches)

2)Take part in a cow blood-drinking ceremony

3)Learn Maasai jewelry beading

4) Build a hut out of cow dung (this is the woman's (i.e. My) job)

5)Survival skills in the bush

I'll be sure to update you all on how each of these turns out.

Language

In order to swear in as volunteers, we have to achieve a mininum of intermediate low proficiency in our language. This basically means you can introduce yourself, greet people, say where you are from, what you do, order at a restaurant, get around on public transportation, and have a basic conversation with someone. On Friday we had our first test and I placed Novice High, which means I just need one more level and we have three more weeks so I was excited about that.

Every day things get a little easier and a little more comfortable. The things you thought you wouldn't be able to get used to, the choo, bucket baths, no lights, really aren't that big of a deal at all. Actually, that's a lie. I don't think I will ever get used to the choo, what is essentially a pit latrine. Usually enclosed in a wood shed, it is simply a hole you squat over (Ayah- I don't know what you would do here!). Not fun. But the other stuff isn't too bad. We are almost halfway though training and though sometimes the days feel like they drag on endlessly, the weeks are flying by. I know I will miss my host family but I am also really ready to integrate into my permanent community.

Last but certainly not least:

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks to all who prayed for my niece. Her surgery went well and I hope she will be out of the hospital Monday or Tuesday. God is good!

I am still working on emails. I try to conserve my battery on the computer so I can only do a couple per time I sign online. I'm getting there though. Expect some aerograms :-)

OK, my mama's calling me, WRITE ME!

So, I am here in Kenya, safe and sound. Sorry for the delay in posting but it has been a crazy few weeks. This post might be a bit disjointed and random but I will try to make some sort of order. We arrived in Nairobi airport Wednesday May 26 and all managed to get all of our bags onto two matatus (van that acts as a passenger bus) and headed to a compound about 30 minutes outside of the city. We stayed there for two days and then headed to our training city, Loitoktok. Loitoktok is a border city to Tanzania and boasts awesome views of Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Homestay

My homestay family is great. They have made me feel so welcome and we all get along great. In the family is my mama, baba (dad), and kaka (brother). I also have another kaka and dada (sister) but they are away at school. Man, my mama works HARD. I hear her outside my bedroom window about 6am every morning milking the cow (we have a shamba [farm] with beans and maize, chickens, and a cow) and getting firewood together. The house is small but cozy. We don't have electricity so mama cooks by either jiko stove (charcoal) or, most often, over fire. The food is... food. It not great but it's not bad and it's nutritious (sort-of). The main staple food in Kenya is ugali. Now I had had ugali before and it tastes alright to me but it wasn't until last weekend when I saw my brother made it that I had to pause. This is how my kaka made ugali: Boil water in a pot. Pour in two big bowls of flour. Stir vigorously. Watching this I thought, isn't this what we call PAPER MACHET in the States and use for children's arts and crafts??? This is now my dinner a couple times a week. Along with cabbage or kale and beans or potatoes in stew. All in all, things on the homefront are pretty good. The lack of electricity is only a bother when I need to charge my own things, part of the reason it has taken me so long to post and email. I get home from training about 6:30 (our curfew), have chai (milky tea), help mama in the kitchen a bit, take a bath (more on that later), eat dinner (by kerosene lamp), talk with the family and by 9PM I am snuggled in my bed reading or, most likely, falling asleep. Quite a change from my summer last year! After the day of training and all the walking, though, I'm tired anyhow so I don't mind going to bed early.

Training

Most days of training start out with a morning full of language (anywhere from 3-5 hours), then lunch, then either technical training, culture lessons, or medical. The first two weeks we were all learning KiSwahili but now that we have our site assignments, we are learning the local language spoken where we will be placed. English and Ki-Swahili are the official languages of Kenya but the country is made up of around 42 tribes, each with their own language. Some are close to one another and some are just as foreign as Japanese to English. I will be learning Ki-Maasai (or Maa) and feel very lucky because my host family is also Maasai so I am able to practice with them every day. For technical training, since I am a SED (small enterprise development= business) volunteer, we are partnered with local groups and will be helping them start and run a business that will hopefully turn a profit before we leave in 5 weeks. My group wants to raise chickens to sell eggs and I think we will be able to get started selling by the end of next week (inshallah). So far we have been meeting with the groups, small business people in the area, and conducting market research. Culture lessons deal a lot with gender roles (I'll have to do a separate post on this one!), Kenyan history, and some details about the different tribes and politics. Medical sessions are usually the worst. Basically, they detail all of the 1986398710984 things that can kill us while we are here, how to spot them, when to call medical, and how/if they are treated. There's also the rounds of shots, but we get snickers after them so I say it's a fair trade :-)

My Job

Our group was quite lucky in that we found out our site assignments 2 weeks into training. The first group back after PC evacuated Kenya in 2008 (due to post-election violence) found out their site assignments literally two days before they were set to go. We now have the advantage of knowing where we will go and what we will do so that we can tailor our training to be the most effective. I will be going to the lower rift valley and working with the Masai tribe. My internet isn't as great as before so I can't put in all the hyperlinks but search for Masai/ Maasai and you will see the population I will be working with. My closest town is Narok, which is about 2 hours from Nairobi. However, since it has been affectionately nicknamed “Nai-robbery” I don't plan on visiting much. My assignment is to work with an NGO, Mission with a Vision, that provides a safe house for girls who have been victims of FGM (female genital mutilation/ female circumcision) and/or early marriage. The Maasai is one of the tribes that still practices FGM and some girls are married as young as 12 or 13. The safe house is a place they can run away to and be enrolled in secondary school. The organization tries to reconcile the girls with their parents after some time elapses, and they say there are many times successful in doing so. I will also be starting a micro-finance institution there and helping the women and girls start small businesses. I'm really excited about the project, the SED advisers really did a great job in placing people according to skill sets and interests.

OK, this post is really long at this point so I'll just end with this: It is 10:05 on Saturday morning and I have already made and eaten breakfast, washed this week's clothes (by hand of course), “washed the house”, and finished a book. My kaka also tried to get me to wash his clothes but I am trying (slowly) to undo his learning about static gender roles. Now it's time to start lunch and go to the market! Electricity provided, I will post more later this week. Any questions or comments feel free to tell me below or send me an email (megan.d.browder@gmail.com). Sera!

Attitude of Gratitude

I have many thanks to extend. First to my Mom for throwing me an amazing surprise going away party! I don't know how she managed to get it all done and not have me find out, probably because my mind is in about 1000 places right now. Also, thank you to my sister, aunt, Dad, and stepmom for their help. And to all of the people who showed up from near and far. I feel that I am going to Kenya very loved, so asante sana! Big thank you to my BFF from middle school who flew six months preggo to see me off and stayed up until 3am helping me pack. She is a RPCV in Dominican Republic and she made me halve my clothes and take about 1/4 of everything else. She also told me pretty bluntly that I will need to take my hygiene down a couple of notches because I had a suitcase full of wipes, soap and deodorant. I'm sure my back will thank her again as I lug all of my bags through Kenya. :-) And of course, thanks to you, my readers, who overlap a lot with the aforementioned group but nevertheless I thank you for your words of encouragement, prayers, and just for reading.

Logistics

Tomorrow I leave for Philly where I will meet the other wonderful volunteers. We have an orientation of sorts and then Tuesday we take a bus to JFK and say kwa heri Mmarekeni! I'm not sure about flight logistics but we arrive in Kenya on Tuesday, I believe. Then I will start training, which will continue until July 22. During this time I will be living with a host family and learning all I can about Kenyan culture, KiSwahili, and technical training. At the end of July, inshallah, I will be sworn in as an official volunteer and go to my site where I will be living for the next two years. That is pretty much all that I know. Here's what I don't know: availability of electricity, availability of Internet access, what exactly my job role will be, where exactly in Kenya I will be living, and probably any other question you might have. Hopefully I will have better answers in the coming weeks but I don't know how I will be able to communicate things to you all. Stay tuned though!

Mailing address

One other thing I know is how you can all get in touch with me: snail mail!!! My address during training will be:

Megan Browder, Peace Corps Trainee

P.O. Box 698-00621

Village Market

Nairobi, Kenya

If you and I will be frequent pen pals, they do suggest that you number your letters so I will know if one got lost. If you choose to send a package, please don't send anything that is expensive, the chances of it not making it or me having to pay a hefty "duty" on it are pretty high. PC recommends using a padded envelope rather than a box (less conspicuous I think). When I get to site I will have a new address but you can also use the above address throughout my service.

Ok, now that I have written this blog post I have 99 things left to do so I'm going to get on that. I probably will not have internet access while in training so if you don't hear from me, don't assume the worst. Enjoy the summer everyone!

Yes, it's the name of a controversial, hot new book, but it is also indicative of my life at this moment. The game has changed for me in the last few weeks, stay tuned for updates. Heart and prayers to Haiti, hopefully this will allow the country to be rebuilt better and stronger.

This is my last week in Cincinnati, and my second to last week in America for an unspecified amount of time. Excited? Yep. Nervous? Only about my lack of language ability. Ready to go? YES! For those tardy to the party I'll rewind a bit. This first post will be a bunch of FAQs...

1. Where are you going?

Currently, I'm a Peace Corps Nominee. For those unfamiliar with PC lingo (which I certainly was before last year), a nominee is someone who has been nominated for a particular region and focus are but has yet to be invited. So I have been nominated for Business Advising in Sub-Saharan Africa leaving June 2010. The next step is to patiently await word from my placement officer who will (hopefully) tell me that I have an invitation. The invitation gives the specific date, place, and job that I will be doing in the Peace Corps. Make sense? But, before that I will be doing a separate program in Morocco through Cross-Cultural Solutions. I will be in Rabat, Morocco from January to April. From there it gets a little hazy. I might stay and travel around North Africa/ Middle East. I might come back to America and wait until I hear from the PC, that part is still fuzzy.

2. What will you be doing in Morocco?

The program focuses on women's development, caregiving, teaching, and community development. I suspect I'll do a bit of all of these things but I will start by teaching intermediate English to refugees and possibly with the Millennium Challenge Corporation on an Enterprise project.

3. Why????

Probably the most FAQ. Just a bit of background on me. I graduated from Columbia in 2006 with a BA in East Asian Studies, but I had already been working on Wall Street since I was 19. Yes, they don't seem to be related but such is my life. I loved my job in trading and all of the people I worked with and it was a really tough decision to leave. But, when I started on Wall Street, I always knew it wasn't what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, for a myriad of reasons. Fast forward to 2008: My company goes bankrupt on my birthday, someone crashed into my car, and I spent the night of my birthday watching Gossip Girl and revising my resume. How is that for a wake up call? As much as I loved the people that I worked with, having everything implode made me realize I needed to really sit and think about what I wanted to do, what career I wanted. In ten years, what kind of job did I want to walk into every day? I read, I researched, I prayed and then life started to make a bit more sense. I was always interested in things international, I love learning languages, meeting new people, and learning about different cultures and world history. I also like money. I like making it, budgeting it, spending it, advising people on it. I like economics and finance as a field but trading is very pointed and specific. You trade this specific product for these specific clients. This question is going on too long so suffice to say, Jeffrey Sachs "End of Poverty" had a profound effect on my decision making and I knew I wanted to do development/ diplomacy and I quit my job in June 2009 to make it happen.

4. So now what?

There are several plans in play. I don't want to put them in print because I'm superstitious. Rest assured, there is an ultimate goal.

5. Why can't you stay in America and volunteer? People in America need help too!

Yep, they sure do. And I do volunteer in America, I have volunteered in America for a very long time. But there are countries that have negative GDP or where per capita GDP is $900- a year. Development abroad is actually in America's interest, which is why Secretary of State Clinton has reiterated the three pillars of the State Department to be defense, diplomacy, and development. Yes, I understand that there is a lot of work to be done in America and when I get back I plan to continue to do what I can to make our country better.

6. How can we contact you?

My favorite FAQ! Email me! Write me snail mail style! I can't put my exact location details on a blog for security reasons but send me a message and I'll tell you. Call me! For the time I'm in Morocco, I will have internet access much of the time. I have a Skype number that is a 917 area code so you can call me just like you would call anyone else in America. So, I might be out of sight but hopefully you all won't put me out of mind!

Ok, that's all for now. I just wanted to start this before I left. Happy New Year!